Did You Runaway, Did You Fall Apart?
by DarkElements10
Summary: For Zack and Cody school on the seven seas gets even better when old friends enroll in the school. But underneath every good thing is a bad thing. Cody figures that out as he realizes that he has to choose between the one he let go and the one he loves.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

"Hm, where did Zack go?" Cody Martin asked himself as he walked onto the sky deck.

He had thought that his brother would be working at the juice bar today, but he obviously wasn't. Cody had checked his brother's room, the game room, and the engine room to see if his brother was up to his usual mischief, but he wasn't anywhere to be found. Sighing, he continued looking around, seeing passengers and students on the SS Tipton. He looked over at the juice bar and couldn't help but let a smile slide onto his face. His friend and crush, Bailey Pickett was there, drinking a smoothie and reading a book.

Almost as soon as Cody had met her, he had a crush on her and has tried everything to get her to fall for him, but nothing has worked. She doesn't even know that he likes her, but it's just as well, Cody wasn't sure what he would do if he was finally able to tell her how he felt. He jumped when he realized that Bailey had noticed him looking at her and waved him over.

"Cody!" she called cheerfully.

"Oh, hi Bailey." Cody replied as if going onto the sky deck was a coincidence. "Didn't see you there."

"Really?" Bailey looked confused as she cocked her head to the side. "'Cause you were kinda staring at me."

"No I wasn't!" Cody denied quickly, looking like a deer caught in headlights. "I was, uh, looking at that sign! Behind you!"

Bailey turned around and Cody took a quick glimpse at the sign and flinched when he saw that it was a large sign for a two for one deal on smoothies. Bailey turned back around her and her confused look had turned into full blown confusion.

"But it's just a-"

"So, Bailey!" Cody stated loudly as he sat down next to her. "Have you seen my brother?"

"I would have smelled him before he reached me." Bailey giggled in reply. "He smells even worse than a pig rolling around in cow pies."

"Uh, right" Cody's eyes shifted back and forth, not exactly knowing what that had to do with anything. "But you're right about him smelling that bad. I don't think he knows what hygiene even is. I think he thinks that it's a way to greet someone named Gene."

"Or some kind of language he can't understand" Bailey added and the two chuckled a little bit.

"Hey, what's so funny?" Zack Martin, Cody's older twin brother, as ked as he walked up with Cody's roommate, Woody Fink. Bailey and Cody stopped laughing when they saw that the two were holding onto slingshots.

"Zack, what are you going to do with that?" Bailey asked as she stood up slowly, eyeing the slingshot that he was holding tightly.

"Oh," Zack ginned and held up the slingshot, pulling the string back a little bit and pretending to take aim. "Woody and I are going to use these to shoot cherries at old people and see how they react!"

"Woody, how did Zack talk you into this?" Cody asked as he nudged his brother aside. "I mean, this idea has groundings written all over it."

"Please, who's going to ground us?" Zack scoffed.

"I will!" Mr. Moseby replied as he walked over to Zack and Woody and took the slingshots out of this hands. "I don't want you to bother any of the guests, even if you _are_ students here." He studied Zack. "Although I'm not sure how you were able to pass the first grade."

"I was surprised that he was able to pass kindergarten with his grades." Cody cracked. He and Bailey started to laugh together, being the top of the class, but stopped abruptly when they saw that Zack was glaring at them.

"Anyway, I have some new for you two," Mr. Moseby said as he turned to Zack and Cody. "Some of your friends, heaven forbid, are enrolling at seven seas high."

"Cool, who is it?" Zack asked, his eyes growing wide with excitement.

"I don't care, as long as they don't try and wreak havoc on this ship. I already have my hands full." He said and gave a death stare to Zack and Cody as he walked off to do his job, which was checking on the guests and making sure that they were having a good time.

Zack pulled a cherry out of his pocket, put it in the slingshot and took aim at Mr. Moseby's back.

"Don't even think about it!" Mr. Moseby called without turning around. Zack groaned and lowered the slingshot.

"Who do you think it is, Zack?" Cody asked, turning his twin's attention from the older man. "I don't think many people would be able to afford Seven Seas High."

"Who cares, as long as it's not Agnes." Zack replied, causing him and Cody to shiver out of fear of their 'friend' who had stalked them for a good time of their lives. "C'mon guys, let's go to the game room."

Zack, Cody, Bailey, and Woody headed towards the game room, Cody trailing further behind the others, deep in thought.

'_It doesn't make sense, who would suddenly come to Seven Seas High, so late in the year? And if it was one of our really good friends, they would have told us that they were coming. Who could it be_?'

* * *

**Notes**

–**Request for ReachingForTheStars**

**-Suite Life on Deck fic**

**-ZackxRiley RhubenxCodyxBailey**

**-Stories without elements, Rikku and Rumiku go by Riley and Rhuben**

**-This is mainly a Cody Centered Story**

**-Used this title as a somewhat sequel to 'Hotel California'. This isn't the sequel to that story and there isn't going to be one. This is a request.**


	2. Living Habits of the Popular and Nerdy

**Living Habits of the Popular and Nerdy**

**

* * *

**

"Today, we're going to be learning about the Prime Minister of Great Britain." Ms. Tutweiller said excitedly as she walked across the front of the room. Bailey sat up straight, looking excited, Cody slumped down in his chair, deep in thought, Zack started to fall asleep and London…well, London was late to class.

Not like anyone would have cared anyway.

"Who knows anything about the Prime Minister?" Ms. Tutweiller turned around, expecting to see Bailey's and Cody's hands eagerly waving in the air. But she only saw Bailey's hand waving in the air. Cody barely glanced at her and looked away, looking down at his history book. "Cody? You don't know?"

"What?" Cody lifted his head, confusion etched on his face, showing that he didn't know what she was talking about.

"I asked if anyone knew anything about the British Prime Minister," Ms. Tutweiller replied, her smile fading a little bit. "We're going to be stopping in England in the next week and I wanted to research it a little bit so you guys had a grasp of what you were going to see. And, frankly, I'm surprised that you don't know anything."

"Oh, I just didn't hear your question." Cody replied as he sat up straight. "But, I'm pretty sure that Bailey had her hand up first, so you can go ahead and call on her."

"Thank you, Cody." Bailey beamed over at him and he gave a weak smile in reply.

"The British Prime Minister is Gordon Brown;" Bailey started to rattle off. "He was born February 20, 1951 and-"

"I'm he-re!" London sang as walked into the classroom, carrying an arm load of shopping bags. "Wow, you guys should have seen Barcelona; it's a great place to shop."

"London, what will your daddy say if he knew that you were skipping your classes?" Ms. Tutweiller asked as she shook her head.

"Probably something along the lines of-"London was cut off with a loud snore, causing everybody to look around in confusion. London wrinkled her nose. "Eww, Daddy wouldn't say _that_!"

"That's not…someone talking." Ms. Tutweiller replied in a detective tone. She marched over to Zack's desk and saw that he was sitting at his desk, a book in front of his face. Ms. Tutweiller shook her head and pulled the book away, showing that Zack was fast asleep. She shook her head and shook Zack's shoulder. "Zack…wake up!"

Zack snorted loudly and rolled to the other side, still sleeping. Ms. Tutweiller continued shaking him and calling his name. She then tried pulling open one of his eyelids, and holding his nose shut. When that didn't work, she turned to Cody with an exasperated look on her face. "Cody, do you know how you can wake your brother up?"

"Besides waving a BBQ rib in front of his face?" Cody asked dryly and gave a small smile when Bailey giggled beside him. "Yeah, I'll wake him up." Cody took a deep breath, pinched his nose shut, and blew through his nose. Zack shot his head up, looking disoriented, and Cody let go of his nose, smiling smugly.

"Ugh, Cody, I thought I told you to stop doing that!" he snapped. His eyes widened as he looked up at Ms. Tutweiller, finally realizing what was going on. "Hey Ms. Tutweiller, what are you doing in my room?"

* * *

"Finally class is over; I don't think sleeping seven hours during the day and all through the night is a good idea." Zack said as he, Cody, and Bailey walked out of the classroom, binders under their arms. "I mean, I'm more tired than usual."

"Well, Zack, maybe you just need to try and actually pay attention during class and study." Bailey replied helpfully. "I find it very invigorating to sit in my room and read the history text book."

"Yeah, I wanted something to do to keep me awake, _not _to put me back to sleep!" Zack replied with a snort and a roll of his eyes. He looked over at Cody, who was looking at his feet as he walked. "What's up with you? Usually you're only quiet when you're sulking after you've gotten a question on a quiz or a test wrong."

"Unlike you, who never shuts up," Cody replied dryly and shook his head. "It's not that, I've been thinking about who could be the ones that are coming to Seven Seas High. I just can't guess who it could be. Oh," he turned to Zack with wide eyes and a bright smile. "Maybe its Max and Tapeworm."

"What kind of a name is Tapeworm?" Bailey asked as she wrinkled her nose at the thought.

"The kind of name that you get when you eat twenty hotdogs in two minutes," Zack and Cody harmonized and smiled at the thought. It's been a while since the twins have seen the first friends they made when they moved to Boston. Last they had heard, Max had gone off to compete in a dancing competition, and Tapeworm had gone off to a math competition.

"Wow, he must really love hotdogs." Bailey commented.

"It's either that, or he was dared to do it," Zack replied, a thoughtful look on his face. "We don't know and we don't ask."

"Well, here's my room." Bailey said as she stopped by the door, she turned to the twins with a bright smile. "I've got to start on my project."

"That's not due three weeks from now." Zack pointed out, a disgusted look on his face. "And you're starting now?"

"I have to," Bailey replied, looking offended. "How else am I going to have enough time do all of the research and extra credit." She turned and started to go into the room, but remembered something and turned back around. "Let me know when your friends get here, I want to meet them."

"Ok," Zack nodded and started to walk away.

"We'll see you later, Bailey." Cody replied politely and followed his brother.

"Bye."

Zack waited further down the hall, making sure Bailey had gone into her room and was out of earshot, before turning to Cody with an annoyed look on his face. "We'll see you later, Bailey." He imitated in a high pitched voice, mocking Cody's. "I love you, Bailey. Marry me, Bailey." He burst out laughing and Cody blushed. "Geez Codes, you might as well just admit it already, I mean, I don't think your sanity can take much more." He stopped in front of his single-bedroom door. "Take it from me, Cody. It's a better idea to tell her sooner rather than later, when it blows up in your face."

Cody stood, mulling over what Zack had said as Zack went into his room. Cody shrugged and went to his room, looking around and sniffing warily before fully going in. He sighed in relief when he realized that Woody wasn't in the room. It wasn't that Cody didn't like having Woody as a roommate, it was kind of comforting because Wood was kind of like Zack…except bigger and a little more disgusting. Other than that, Woody's mannerisms almost rivaled Zack's so Cody felt like he was at home when Woody was around.

Cody dropped his bag to the ground and flopped down onto his bed, thinking hard about Bailey. He had fallen in love with her almost as soon as he saw her. Well, when he first saw her as a girl. When Bailey first was on board, she had disguised herself as a boy because there wasn't any more rooms for girls to stay. But after London agreed that Bailey could share her room, Zack got his own room, and Cody…well he gained a crush.

There were plenty of times where he felt as if his crush was unrequited, but there were other times where he felt like they were perfect for each other. He loved the way that they clicked whenever they talked about math, history, English, anything that has to do with school. And he always wanted to know more about her.

'_I guess I understand what Zack means._' Cody thought to himself, staring at the ceiling. '_There were plenty of times that I had crushes on girls and didn't tell them in time to do anything about it. Well, I was with Barbra for a while…but I don't think I was actually in love with her. Not like I love Bailey_.'

Cody sat up, his eyes wide. "Whoa." He muttered, looking around. "I love, Bailey?" He continued to think about it and then shook his head, letting out a small groan before falling back onto the pillows. "I don't know! I gotta think more!"

* * *

Zack pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and paced back and forth, trying to decide whether or not he wanted to call. He started the number that was flashing on the screen. He hesitated as he looked at it, his heart starting to beat faster. Finally, he made up his mind and pushed the SEND button. He put the phone by his ear and waited for the person on the other end to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Max, its me, Zack." Zack said after a second of hesitation. Max must have been shocked because she didn't say anything for the next few seconds.

"Zack? Wow, we haven't talked in a long time." She laughed and Zack couldn't help but laugh too. "What are you up to?"

"Oh, Cody and I go to school on the SS Tipton now. Mom got enough money for us to give it a try for a year." Zack replied as he stopped pacing his room and sat down on his bed. "What about you? Are you still at Cheevers?"

"Oh, no, I don't go to school anymore." Max replied.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I go to school, but I'm tutored. Didn't your mom tell you? Over the summer I worked on dancing hard enough that I'm now a professional. Right now I'm going around and I'm working with a performance group. We go to a lot of high schools and stuff."

"Oh, well, what about Tapeworm. I haven't talked to him in a while either."

"Tapeworm? He's doing well. He skipped a grade so he's already in junior year. What's the school there like?"

"It's cool. We have regular classes, but instead of going to a jungle gym for recess, we go to the sky deck and eat ice cream."

"I hope you aren't getting in a lot of trouble."

"Max, it's me. I can't go to a school without leaving my mark." The two laughed again. "So, listen, there actually was a good reason that I called."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I just wanted to let you know…that while we were in school, I had a really, really big crush on you. I just wasn't sure how to tell you." There was another pause and another stretch of silence. "You still there?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm still here. Just shocked a little bit. That's kind of confusing, considering you were so hung up on Ri-"

"Please…don't say her name." Zack interrupted and took a deep breath before continuing. "I was, for a while. But, I always had feelings for you."

"Jeez, I wish you told me sooner." Max replied, sounding kind of guilty about something. "I'm dating Tapeworm now."

"You and Tapeworm?"

"Yeah, I didn't think it would ever happen either. But we're happy. Almost at our 8th month."

"Congratulations."

"Thanks…listen, I have to go. But it was really nice talking to you, Zack. Next time the ship comes around the US, give us a call. We have to hang out."

"Ok, I'll do that."

"Bye."

"Wait"

"Yes?"

"Do you know who's going to be visiting us on the ship?"

"…yes I do, but you have to see who it is yourself. I can't tell you."

"Oh come on, please?"

"No, Zack."

"Not even if I throw in a little flirting for old time's sake."

"Not even for that." Max laughed.

"Alright," Zack smiled fondly. "It was nice talking to you, Max."

"You too."

Zack was smiling as he hung up the cell phone, and yet he had a vague feeling of missing out on something. Shrugging, he tossed his phone onto his bed and picked up his laptop from the desk.

Nothing a few hours of listening to music couldn't cure.

* * *

"HEY CODY!"

Cody jumped and let out a little squeal of fright as Woody slammed open the door to their room and shouted for Cody's attention. He sat up, his heart racing, and gave a pointed stare at his roommate. Woody grinned back at him, as if he couldn't see the annoyed expression on the blonde boy's face.

"What do you want, Woody?" he asked as he fought to catch his breath.

"I just wanted to see how my roommates doing." Woody replied as he walked closer to his roommate. "You've been here for hours, laying down with your am over your face. Breathing heavily. If I didn't know any better I would say that you were crying. But I knew you weren't because there wasn't any water works or anything." Cody nodded and then smelled something spicy. He looked around and saw that his roommate was eating a hoagie. Woody saw that Cody was looking at his sandwich and held it out. "Wanna bite?" Cody watched in disgust as some of the sandwich fell apart and splattered on the floor.

"Dude, use a napkin!" Cody declared, leaping to his feet to look at the mess. He sighed and slumped his shoulders. "What do you really want, Woody?"

"You just seemed really stressed out and depressed," Woody replied with a shrug and then his eyes widened. "Let's go up to the sky deck."

"If you fart up there, then I'll get fresh air, so that might not be a bad idea." Cody replied as he pinched his nose shut, fanning the air of the aforementioned gas. "C'mon."

"Wait, what are you so depressed about?"

"I'm not depressed, Woody." Cody replied as the two walked out of the room. They bumped into Zack in the hallway.

"He's right, Woodster." Zack said and put his arm around his brother's shoulder, lightly slapping him in the chest. "If he was depressed, you'd know it. He'd probably be sitting on his bed, rocking back and forth, holding onto his blankie."

"Zack, you know perfectly well that I left blankie at home." Cody practically growled. "And I only need him when I'm scared, not when I'm depressed."

"Like it makes much of a difference, you're still using a blankie to make yourself feel better." Zack replied as he rolled his eyes. The three boys went up to the sky deck and was surprised when they saw a lot of people, standing around, talking excitedly. "What's going on?"

"I don't know, but the smoothie bar is open." Woody replied and then stopped as he thought about something. "Zack, Cody, aren't you supposed to be working?"

"No, I asked for the day off today." Cody replied casually and then turned to Zack, when he saw that his brother had stiffened and his eyes widened. "What?"

"You're supposed to _ask_ to take a day off?"

Before Cody or Woody could reply, Zack turned and rushed over to the smoothie bar. Pushing people out of his way, to which Mr. Moseby loudly reprimanded him of doing from across the sky deck, Zack jumped over the bar and quickly tied an apron around his waist before rushing around and taking orders. Cody sighed and shook his head, placing his hands on his hips.

"It really surprises me that we can be related." He muttered to himself as he hung his head, acting weary. "But that just shows who the smart one is."

"Yeah, it does." Woody nodded in agreement and looked around. "So, do you want to get a smoothie or…" he trailed off when he looked to the side and then he looked back at Cody with a grin. "Do you want to go talk to Bailey?"

Cody eyed his roommate as he gave him a creepy smile. He knew that it wasn't a secret about his crush on Bailey, and he knew that she didn't know. But whenever he was around her, he was surprised that she couldn't figure it out herself.

"Woody?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up!"

Cody sighed and started to walk away, looking for a deck chair that wasn't occupied so he could sit down and think. As he looked around, he crashed into someone, stumbling backwards as he tried to regain his balance.

"Oh, sorry about that, I wasn't watching where I was going." Cody quickly apologized as she picked up the purple bag the person had dropped. Giving an apologetic smile, he held out his hand to give her the bag.

"Cody?" the girl asked, cocking her head to the side.

"How…" Cody swallowed thickly, his heart starting to beat faster. "How…do you know my name?"

"I can't believe you don't remember me." The girl replied, sounding half amused, half annoyed. Cody slowly shook his head.

"Sorry…I don't." The girl sighed and rook off her sunglasses and glared at Cody, her familiar blue eyes flashing dangerously. Cody gasped and his eyes widened, causing the girl to smirk when she knew that he remembered who she was. "Rhu…Rhu…"

"It's nice to see you again, Cody."

"Rhuben?"


	3. This Is The World Coming Down On My Head

**This Is The World Coming Down On My Head**

* * *

Rhuben Jackson brushed her hair out of her face and placed her hands on her hips. Cody looked her up and down. She had cut her hair so it was to her shoulders, but it still had the purple strand in it. But she stayed true to her punk-rock-band style: a black tank-top, black cargo shorts, a wide purple belt, and black vans. She had her trademark apathetic look on her face.

All in all, she didn't look that different.

"W…what are you doing here?" Cody stuttered, his eyes wide, his hands shaking. He shook his head and swallowed thickly, blinking rapidly, as if he was trying to get a grip on reality. He felt as if he was going to pass out. Hoping that this was all a dream, he was starting to refuse to believe that she was even there. But knowing his luck, it was reality. "How did you get here?"

"Uh, it's called getting on the boat when it stops in an Australian port." Rhuben replied as she raised her eyebrows, showing she was kind of annoyed. And that the answer was kind of obvious. That's what she remembered about Cody, whenever he was nervous, he asked really obvious questions. '_What could he __possibly__ be nervous about?_' she asked herself. '_We're only friends and its going to stay that way._' She cleared her throat loudly. "And to what I'm doing here, I'm coming here for school."

"That can't only be it." Cody insisted, still trying to regain sensible thoughts. So far, when he had seen her, his brain had turned to mush and he couldn't think straight.

"And the fact that our dad got our band to perform here sometimes, adds to that." Rhuben finally admitted, rolling her eyes. "What's wrong, you don't seem happy to see me."

"No…no…that's not it." Cody replied, desperately trying to think of something to say.

"Cody?" Cody felt like he was going to faint as he slowly turned around, already knowing who was standing behind him without having to say anything. It was Bailey and she had a curious look on her face. "Woody said that you wanted to talk to me."

Cody looked around for Woody and when he found his roommate, he glared. Woody gave a cheerful wave and gave a thumbs up. Making sure that no little kids, parents, or Mr. Moseby were watching him, he gave Woody the finger and turned back around.

"Uh, yeah, I did, uh-"

"Oh my gosh! You're Midnight!" Bailey gasped, pointing a finger in Rhuben's face, a giddy smile appearing. She gave out a little laugh. The one that Cody thought was cute and the one that others thought was weird. It was the laugh that she usually reserved for when she was in a nervous situation, especially if it was by another guy. Cody looked over at Rhuben and saw that she had a small smile on her face, but an annoyed look in her eyes. "You're from the DarkElements!"

"You must be a big fan if you know my stage name." Rhuben commented with a slight laugh. "That's a change, not a lot of people know enough about us that we have a real name and a stage name that we perform under.

"Oh, I know _all_ about you and your siblings, you're really great." Bailey replied, completely star struck. Cody looked back and forth to each other and gave a small sigh of relief.

'_Good, they're getting along. Maybe this won't be so bad._' He thought worriedly.

"Did you get that corn husk cake that I made?" Bailey was asking Rhuben when he got back to paying attention to the conversation.

"You were the one that made that?" Rhuben asked, raising her eyebrows again and Bailey nodded eagerly. "My brothers loved it, but then again, they love practically anything that has sugar in it." Looking over at Cody, she saw that he was practically sweating bullets and took that for a cue to leave. Rhuben gave an apologetic shrug. "I have to go find my room." She must have felt the tension in the air because she turned and walked away quickly.

"Cody, you never told me that you were friends with the DarkElements!" Bailey suddenly declared, grabbing onto Cody's arm, causing his face to turn a little red as he smiled at the contact. Suddenly, she let out a large gasp, prompting Cody into thinking that she was having a heart attack or something. Looking at her face, she might as well have just had one. "Wait; are they the ones that are coming to our school?"

"Y-Yeah, they are." Cody replied, wiping sweat off of his forehead.

"Oh my gosh, I'm going to go to school with the DarkElements!" Bailey let out a squeal as she started to jump up and down excitedly. "I have to go tell my friends, they'll be so jealous!" Bailey started to hurry away, but stopped and turned back around, an eager/curious look on her face. "Cody, what were you going to talk to me about?"

Cody lifted his head and tilted it to the side, not sure what she was talking about, and then his face cleared in recognition. He gave an easy going smile and shook his head. "Oh, it was nothing; you don't have to worry about it."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

Bailey gave a smile and a wave before hurrying off to her bedroom. Cody turned around, a pissed off expression on his face as he turned to find his roommate. As he searched for him, he crashed into London, who walked onto the sundeck with her dog, Ivanna in her arms, looking at all of the photographers. When she saw Cody, she looked relieved that she finally found someone that could help her.

"Cody, what's with all of the photographers?" she asked. "And why aren't they taking pictures of me? I'm wearing a new Marc Jacobs dress."

"They're here to take pictures of the Jacksons." Cody replied as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Who?" London asked.

Hoping that London was joking, Cody turned to look at her and then made a face of disbelief when he saw that she was utterly confused. "The DarkElements?" she still looked confused. "Riley and Rhuben? They lived in the Tipton Hotel with us."

"Still doesn't ring a bell." She replied and shifted her grip on Ivanna. Cody rolled his eyes.

"They have an older brother named, Julius."

"Oh! Them!"

"Yeah."

"How are they more famous than me?" London asked. Cody let out a sound of frustration and walked away from London. He finally found Woody eating at the buffet and grabbed him by the shirt sleeve, pulling him away from the table.

"What did you do that for? They just brought out the four o'clock ice cream." Woody whined.

"Do me a favor, Woody." Cody said through gritted teeth. "Next time you want to help me with Bailey, _don't_!"

"Does this have to do with that other girl that you were talking to?"

"Yes, it does!"

"Who was she anyway?"

"That doesn't matter." Cody snapped, sighing heavily.

He let go of Woody and let out a few cleansing breaths, trying to control himself. '_All the matters is that I'm going to be in trouble if I don't think of a way to stay away from Rhuben. I'm afraid that all of my feelings will come rushing back and then I wouldn't know if Bailey is right for me_'.

"It doesn't matter. Just, please, don't ever try to help me again."

* * *

"Hey, can I get a banana smoothie?"

"Where's my milkshake, I asked for one like a half hour ago?"

"Could you move a little faster?"

"Gosh, service is so slow, today?"

"Hey!" Zack shouted angrily as he slammed his hands down onto the counter, glaring at the angry customers in from of him. "I'm moving as fast as I can. And if you don't like it, I suggest that you leave _before_ you get a smoothie down your pants!" He glared as the crowd around the smoothie disappeared, all muttering to themselves about how the service stinks.

Sighing, Zack picked up a glass and a rag and started to clean it.

"Rough day?" a curious voice asked.

"You don't know the half of it" Zack sighed in reply as he turned to face who was talking. He gave a slight smile when he saw the person sitting on the stool. He raised an eyebrow when he saw that the person was wearing a black hoodie and that the hood was pulled up over their head. "Aren't you getting a little hot in that? It's over 80 degrees today."

"I'm fine." The person replied simply.

"Ok, so, what can I get you?" Zack asked as he set down the glass and rag.

"I'll take a strawberry kiwi smoothie." The person replied after a second of silence.

"Coming right up." Zack replied with a bright grin and started to dump the ingredients together in a blender. The loud whirring sound caused the person that was waiting to jump and clasp their hands over their ears. Zack looked kind of bored as he stood there, waiting for it to finish. He finally pressed the stop button and pulled open the top.

"I see that you've spent a lot of time making smoothies."

"Yeah, after I maxed out my spending card, I had to get a job here." Zack replied with a shrug. "I don't mind it though. Just between you and me, I actually like this job."

"Well, you seem to be doing a good job, Zack." The person said and got off the stool and started to walk away. Zack grinned and then his smile faded as he thought about something. Quickly, he jumped over the counter and grabbed the person's arm.

"You didn't pay!" he declared and held out his hand.

"Oh, sorry, Zack." The person replied and dug into their pocket for money. Zack realized something else and shook his head.

"How'd you know my name, I never told you that" he replied slowly.

"Because I know you."

"Have you been stalking me?"

"Not as much as you've practically stalked me during school."

"Who are you?"

"You don't recognize my voice?"

"No."

"Hold this, then." The person handed Zack their smoothie and then pushed their hood off of their head to show shoulder length black hair, with a red strand, and blue eyes. "Hey, long time no see, huh?"

"Riley?" Zack's eyes widened and he dropped the cup of smoothie. "What are you doing here?"

"Getting smoothies thrown at me, apparently." Riley Jackson replied with a frown as she looked down at her shoes, which were now filled with the cold liquid." She chuckled a little bit and brushed her hair out of her face. "All joking aside, I'm here for school."

"You're the ones that are coming for school here?" Zack repeated, pointing at her, a dumbfounded expression on his face.

"Wow, nothing get's past you." Riley replied sarcastically as she shifted the bag that was on her shoulder. "Nice to see that you haven't changed a lot. You're still working to pay off money that you most likely owe your bother. And you still have your unique sense of intuition."

"What's that mean?" Zack asked.

"It's not an insult." Riley replied quickly.

"It's not that…I really don't know what it means." Zack replied with a blink. Riley's right eye twitched, and she slowly let out a breath and clenched her hand into a fist.

"Never mind." She replied quietly, as if she was really close to losing her cool.

"I see that you haven't changed much either," Zack replied, trying not to show his nervousness. "You still look the same."

Like her sister, Riley had cut her hair so it was at her shoulder blades. But she still kept her skater style of clothes. A white hoodie vest over a red t-shirt, black capris, and black vans were what she was currently wearing. That and a guarded expression on her face.

"Thanks, but I have changed a lot." Riley said as she cocked her head to the side. "I'm not as angry as I used to be." She gave a smirk. "Unless you piss me off."

"I didn't expect that to be something that you would change." Zack laughed too. He looked over when he saw that there was another long line at the juice bar. "Well, I have to get back to work." He held out a hand. "It's nice to see you again."

"You too," Riley replied truthfully and took his hand in hers, shaking it gently. She let go of his hand and grabbed her bag, pulling it over her shoulder. "Later." She called over her shoulder as she walked away.

"Yeah, later." Zack muttered as he went back to work. He breezed through the line of customers that were waiting for him to finish, thinking about what it was going to be like to have his friends, the Jacksons, back in school with them. A smirk slid onto his face as he thought about what Cody would have to go through.

'_Let's just hope that Cody finally got over Rhuben…or things will go badly._' He thought to himself and chuckled a little bit.

Zack couldn't believe that Riley was at his school. Ever since he met her (she and her family had moved into the Tipton shortly after he did) he had had a large crush on her. But it was obvious that she didn't return his feelings. Every time he would ask her out for flirt wit her, she would swiftly and embarrassingly turn him down. Zack went out and flirted with amny other girls to try and get his mind off of her, but it never seemed to work. He thought that going on the S.S. Tipton would help him forget, to find someone else that would want to date him. But now she was back on the ship, and going to school there. He didn't know what he was going to do.

He suddenly stopped what he was doing, which was cleaning off the counter with a rag, and looked up in thought.

'_But…how do __I__ feel about Riley?_'


	4. Do What You Have To

**Do What You Have To**

* * *

"Cody, you can't just sit in your bedroom for the rest of your life." Zack said as he poked the lump that was under the covers of his twin brother's bed.

There were only a few minutes left before they were going to be late for class and Zack thought it was odd that his brother didn't meet him on the sky deck, like he usually would before class started. So he decided to go to his brother's room and check on him. He knew that his twin would _never_ want to be late for class unless there was a good reason and he was going to find out that reason.

"Sure I can." Cody's muffled voice responded. "I can live for days without food, and I have plenty of water in here and there's a bathroom, I'll be fine.

"How are you going to do your homework?"

"Woody'll bring it to me."

"How are you going to do Yay Me?"

"I'll make London do it in here."

"What if Bailey asks you out?"

"That'll be the only reason that I'll leave this bed."

"What if _Rhuben_ asks you out?"

"That won't happen." Cody declared as he finally poked his head out from underneath the covers, his blonde hair sticking up in five different directions. He glared at his brother as he stood up from the bed. He stepped down onto the floor, wobbling a little bit. "Rhuben and I broke up a while ago and we're _not_ going to get back together."

"Oh, so _that's_ what this is about." Zack said and laughed a little bit as he rubbed his forehead. "And I thought you were the smart one."

"I _am_ the smart one!" Cody snapped in reply.

"So," Zack said slowly as he folded his arms across his chest and rocked back and forth on his heels. "How are you being the smart one if you're wasting your college education by locking yourself in this room because you're afraid of two girls?"

"No," Cody looked extremely embarrassed and shook his head. "I'm hiding out because…" he trailed off of his sentence and groaned when Zack raised an eyebrow and looked at his younger twin with a smug smile. "Save me seat, I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Sure thing, Sparky." Zack snickered in reply and then explained when Cody looked at him in confusion. "Your hair, have you seen what it looks like? You look like you stuck your finger in a light socket." He stated to laugh. "It sticks out in, like, twenty different directions." Zack continued to laugh until tears were streaming down his cheeks. He finally stopped when he saw the glare on Cody's face. "You know what? I have to get to class."

With that, he turned and bolted from Cody's bedroom. Surprisingly, Cody chased after him as Zack ran all the way to the classroom and jumped into his seat. He grinned as Cody raced over to his desk and reached a hand out towards him, menacingly.

"Uh Cody, what are you wearing?" Bailey asked as she looked over at him.

Cody slowly pulled his hand back away from his brother and looked down. He was wearing his bear print pajamas equipped with the little feet that went along with it. Cody let out a scream as the other classmates started to laugh.

'_Oh no, Bailey's seen me in my pajamas, my most embarrassing ones_.' He thought to himself as he tried, in vain, to cover himself with a large ATLAS book and started to shuffle out of the room. '_I've got to get out of here_!'

"Not so fast, Cody." Ms. Tutweiller said as she stopped him at the door to the classroom. "It's time for homeroom, now sit." She started to back Cody into the room and into his seat. Cody tried to protest, but Ms. Tutweiller shoved him down and turned back around the board. It was only until the laughter rose in magnitude that she noticed that Cody was I his pajamas. "Hm, maybe I should have let you change your clothes."

The students started to quiet down as the bell rang, signaling the start of class. Cody held a hand in front of his face as she sunk down lower in his seat, his cheeks burning red from embarrassment. "This is all your fault, Zack." He hissed over his shoulder.

"Hey, I wasn't the one that chased their brother out of the room." Zack replied defensively as he snickered to himself.

"How did Bailey react to it?" Cody whispered.

"I wouldn't know, I was laughing too hard to pay attention."

"Gee thanks."

"No problem, buddy."

Ms. Tutweiller started to read off the announcements but was stopped when Mr. Moseby barged into the room, yelling something about her students practicing Physics by dropping cupcakes onto passenger's heads. As the two went out of the classroom to talk about whether or not the students should be banned from the sky deck, Bailey turned to Riley and Rhuben, who were sitting behind her, just looking straight ahead.

"So, what's it like being in a band?" she asked, her eyes wide with excitement. Rhuben merely shrugged and slumped down a little bit.

"When you're in a band with your siblings it has its highs and lows." She replied and gave a smirk. "But it's really fun because you always have someone to hang out with and to laugh with." She rolled her eyes. "And _then_ there are times where you just want to beat the others to death because they annoy you a lot."

"That usually happens between Patrick and Noah." Riley spoke up.

"Are they on the boat too?" Zack broke into the conversation.

"Yeah, but they're in the freshmen class because they were born early in the year." She replied and gave a small smile. "Sydney's lucky because he's being home schooled."

"So, how do you know Zack and Cody?" Bailey asked as she looked at the twin boys. "I didn't think that you would be able to make a lot of friends if you're constantly on the road." Suddenly, a scared look came onto her face. "No offense." She added quickly.

"None taken." Riley reassured her. "Our dad brought us to the Tipton hotel on our break from a tour, he started to work as a cabaret singer at the Tipton hotel along with Zack's and Cody's mom." She gave a amused smile. "Funny thing was that our dad and their mom dated for a while."

"Has Bailey said anything about my pajamas?" Cody asked, continuing to hide his face with his hands. The blush on his cheeks had gone down significantly, but he was still blushing.

"No, dude, she's too busy being star struck." Zack replied and rolled his eyes. "It wouldn't matter anyway, you're making a big deal out of nothing."

"Really?" Cody pulled his hand away from his face and turned around to face his brother, who didn't look amused at all. "Are you serious?"

"Cody," Zack started and then paused for a second. "You may be the smart one, but you're a dope."

Cody sighed and slumped down in his seat as he looked back over at Bailey, who was continuing to question Riley and Rhuben. "Is it true that you guys dated Max Thieriot and Kyle Gallner?"

"Yeah, that's true." Riley replied in a blasé tone. "But it was only for a few months, it didn't mean much."

"I think your girlfriend is changing." Zack commented as he pulled headphones out of his pocket and plugged it into his ipod.

"Will you quit it?" Cody demanded in annoyance. "Bailey's not my girlfriend…_yet_."

"That's not who I was talking about."

Cody opened his mouth, getting ready to retort, but Ms. Tutweiller came back into the room and he instantly snapped to attention. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Bailey looked really eager, but he wasn't sure whether or not it was to ask more questions about the British Prime Minister or to ask Riley and Rhuben more questions. He suddenly froze when he thought of something horrible. '_What if Rhuben told her that we dated? God that definitely won't end well. I've got to stop her from asking more questions. But how_?'

"Cody?"

Cody looked up and saw Bailey was standing in front of him, holding onto a large blue notebook a friendly smile on her face.

"Y-yeah?" he stuttered.

"Thank you for letting me borrow your notes yesterday," she beamed as she handed them back to him. Cody tried to say something but couldn't get anything but incoherent babble out of his mouth. Bailey giggled and her smile widened. "They were really helpful."

She turned and started to go back to her seat, but turned back around. "By the way, those pajamas are cuter than new pigs in a litter."

"Thank you?" Cody replied and smiled, but then his smile wilted into a confused look, not sure if it was a compliment or a insult.

* * *

"Hey Zack, where ya headed? Do you wanna go the game room?" Woody asked later that evening.

"Maybe later," Zack replied as he brushed his hair out of his face. "I'm going to get some dinner in the dining room, thankfully I've worked enough to get points for a dinner and I feel like a baked potato with the works."

"Have you ever tried it with fruit loops on top?" Woody asked and rubbed his stomach at the thought. "It's fruity and has a crunchy yet soft taste."

"You know, that sounds very interesting," Zack said as he rubbed his chin. "I'll keep that in mind." He clapped Woody on the back and started to walk away, but stopped when felt as if someone was following him. Looking behind him, he saw Woody standing right behind him. "What are you doing?"

"Following you to dinner." Woody replied as if it was obvious.

"Why?"

"I just figured that you'd like a eating companion, you know, someone who can talk to you about the weather, sports-"

"You don't have any money left on your card do you?" Zack interrupted with a quick guess.

"No," Woody admitted. "And I don't get it refilled tomorrow. So may I eat with you? Please, please, please? I promise I'll pay you back." Woody grabbed onto Zack's arm and sank to his knees as he started to beg.

"Woody," Zack shook his arm, trying to get Woody off of him. He looked up as two attractive girls walked by, giving them weird looks. Zack laughed nervously and then shook his arm harder. "Woody! Get off!" he looked up at the two girls again, but they made faces of disgust and turned away as they walked away. "Fine, Woody, I'll take you with me, just let go." He growled through clenched teeth.

"Great, thanks Zack." Woody cheered as he got up from his knees and let go of Zack's arm with a grin.

"Yeah, great," Zack muttered as he walked to S.S. Tipton's' dining room and was seated. He picked up the menu that was on the table and scanned it quickly, wincing at a few of the prices. "With prices like these, it may be simpler just to get one plate and share."

"So one plate of what?"

Zack put down his menu and looked up at his waitress. "What are you doing here?" he asked Riley, who looked down at her uniform.

"I'm working, what does it look like?"

"Since when do you work here? You just got on the ship."

"Since this morning, I asked Mr. Moseby for the job here, I needed to make spending money somehow." She replied as she held up a pad and a pen. "So are you ready to order or what?"

Zack smirked. "I thought you didn't get testy anymore."

Riley barely looked at him. "Not unless it comes to the fact that I have to wait on rude customers."

"I don't have to be a rude customer." Zack said with a smile.

"But you will be." Riley smiled back, a genuine smile.

Zack, like his brother, suddenly froze. '_No, no way, I can't be falling for her again. There was a reason that we didn't get together in the first place and I can't let it change._' He glanced over at her and saw that she was talking to Woody about who knows what. '_I have to let her know that I'm not interested, but how_?'

Zack looked to the side and saw a wealthy couple eating a chicken and rice combination. He got up from his seat and hurried over to the table. "Hey, uh, this chicken has been recalled." He said quickly.

"For what?" the man demanded.

"They, uh, spontaneously take flight and no one knows why." Zack replied and grabbed a piece of chicken off of the plate and hurled it at Riley, hitting her in the back of the head. "Bull's Eye!"

* * *

**Please read and review. Next chapter is all about Cody.**


	5. Something About You Is So Addictive

**Something About You Is So Addictive**

* * *

The next day, which was a Saturday, found Zack, Cody, Bailey, and Woody sitting on the sky deck, drinking smoothies from the Easy Squeezey. Zack and Cody both had the day off, so they were able to relax for a while and hang out with their friends.

"So, you know, because of the fact that you guys are such close friends with the DarkElements-" Bailey started, casually stirring her straw in her cup.

"Bailey, do you want us to get tickets for you?" Cody spoke up.

Bailey's eyes lit up and she nodded eagerly, grabbing onto his hand. Cody's eyes widened and he blushed a little bit as he glanced over at Zack and Woody. The two were too busy blowing bubbles in their smoothies to pay attention. "Going to one of their concerts would make me so happy. Even happier than if I could go see a Hannah Montana concert."

"I don't even know if they announced their concert dates yet but, I'll try." Cody smiled in reply.

"Cody! Hey!"

Cody turned his head and grinned when he saw Riley's and Rhuben's younger brothers, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney walk over to their table. Bailey let out a gasp and started to fan her face. "Oh my gosh, all of the DarkElements are here. Oh my gosh, I never thought that I would meet all of you!"

"I'm Patrick-"

"I know who you are!" Bailey interrupted as she jumped up from the table and moved in front of the three boys, who were looking at her in curiosity. "You're Patrick, the one that plays the bass and likes girls." She said and moved over to Noah. "And you're Noah, the one that plays the drums and is really sensitive." She moved over one more spot and bent down at her knees to be at the same height as Sydney. "And you're Sydney the one that plays practically any instrument in the world and is the cutest one." She stood up and beamed at the three of them. "Also known as Thundaga, SilverWind, and Spirit."

"Wow, you must be a big fan if you know our stage names too." Noah commented in his soft voice.

"_And_ you have good taste." Sydney added smiling cheekily. "What's your name?"

"Bailey, Bailey Pickett." She practically squealed in reply.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Bailey Pickett." Patrick said and grabbed her hand, kissing the top of it. He didn't notice the look that Cody gave him as he turned to the twin boys. "Zack, Cody, how are you guys? It's been a while!"

"Yeah, what are you doing on the ship?" Sydney added curiously.

"Oh, we go to school here now." Zack replied. "Grab a chair."

"Thanks." Noah replied and he, Patrick, and Sydney grabbed three empty chairs and dragged them over to the table as Bailey went and sat back down in her seat, looking even more star struck than she did the day before. "So what's going on and why is Cody looking at Patrick like he wants to kill him?"

"I'm guessing it's because Cody likes Bailey." Sydney murmured in reply, making sure that no one heard him.

"Wow, you really _are_ smart." Zack said from beside Sydney, who grinned in reply. "What are we doing today?"

"Well, when we get to the port, I was thinking of going to Buckingham Palace to learn all about its history." Cody replied eagerly, his smile matching his demeanor. "I can't wait to see it! It's had two different designs. The 2nd one being redesigned in 1913." His eyes grew even wider and he started to speak faster. "Did you guys know-"

"That we don't care?" Woody asked as he looked up from the scab on his elbow that he was picking.

Cody visibly deflated and fell silent. Bailey placed a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "I think it sounds really cool, Cody. In fact, I'll come with you."

"You will?"

"Yeah, maybe we'll be able to meet the queen. That would be really cool." Bailey added with a nod.

"Wow, you just have a lot of celebrity fantasies don't you?" Noah asked in amusement.

"Oh yeah," Bailey rolled her eyes, although she didn't lose her cheerful demeanor. "Once you've lived in Kettle Corn, you're always dreaming about meeting celebrities. You guys, Hannah, and the queen of England are some of the dreams that I have."

"Oh yeah, another one was becoming the Corn Queen from the Kettle Corn Mulch Festival." Zack replied, rubbing his chin. "I remember that, the corn pudding was really good."

"Pudding?" Woody jumped to his feet. "Where?" he ran off in search for the desert, leaving everybody else sitting in silence, not sure what had just happened.

"Anyway," Cody broke the silence loudly before turning back to Bailey. "We're supposed to be docking tomorrow at noon; I'll meet you here on the sky deck at 11:30, ok?"

"Sounds good." Bailey smiled in reply and then excused herself as she stood up. "Well, I have to go write about twelve postcards to send back home."

"Why so many?" Sydney asked, wrinkling his nose in thought.

"I have my parents, my nine sisters and my pig to write to." Bailey replied.

"Your pig can read?" Noah asked.

"Well, no," Bailey admitted and instantly regained her cheerfulness. "But he likes to chew on my hair when I'm home, so I thought that a postcard would be a good substitute. Bye guys!" she turned and headed back to her cabin.

"Wow, Cody, she's a real winner." Sydney said as he turned to the blonde haired boy. "But don't you think she's a little _too_ country?"

"That's what I love about her." Cody said as a dreamy smile slid onto his face. "I love her voice, her laugh, her hair, her intelligence, and the fact that she's always ready for a challenge with a smile."

"Wow, you really have it bad don't you?" Zack asked.

"Yeah, I think I really _do_ love her." Cody replied softly.

"Ha, didn't you say the same thing about Rhu-Rhu?" Noah asked quietly, knowing that Zack and Cody didn't hear him. Patrick and Sydney made grunting sounds of agreement. "Well, we have to get going. School work, ya know?"

"Zack wouldn't." Cody replied with a teasing smile, casing his twin to scowl as the three younger boys laughed good naturedly.

"Nice on Cody, bye." Sydney waved and the three walked away.

"I'm going to get started on my history project." Cody added as he got up from his chair, looking distracted. "By the way, Woody told me that you nailed Riley in the back of the head with a piece of chicken yesterday."

"It wasn't a _piece_ of chicken, it was the whole bird." Zack replied, annoyed.

"Either way," Cody waved off Zack's defense. "It memory serves correctly, and it usually does, she's probably going to kill you."

"Not unless she can't find me, which is why I've been avoiding her all day."

"Are you sure you're not avoiding her for another reason?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

Zack and Cody stared at each other for a few minutes, each waiting to see if the other person would crack and defend themselves first. But neither of them said anything. Cody just raised an eyebrow and turned and went to his cabin.

* * *

**-Cody's POV-**

Waking up at 10:00 the next morning was probably not the smartest thing in the world. I was so nervous about spending the whole day with Bailey that it almost took me an hour to finally decide what to wear. And then when I did, Woody came back from the breakfast buffet to tell me that they were serving parfaits. I figured that out the hard way, he tripped and spilled it onto the clothes that I was going to wear.

So I had to go search for some other clothes and then I went to take a shower. Once in there, I ended up getting shampoo in my eye and blindly looking for a towel, I accidentally turned the water up hotter, causing me to leap out of the shower. Because of this, I was wet and slipped on the floor and hit my head on the toilet on the way down.

Now I'm waiting on the sky deck with a stinging eye and a bruise on my forehead. The beginning of my day sucked, but it couldn't get any worse.

"Hi Cody!"

I turned to greet Bailey and was momentarily stunned by how pretty she looked. She had on a light blue sundress with matching flats, and her hair was in a funky style, half up and half down and lip-gloss. She looked even more beautiful than I had ever seen her before.

"You're staring, is something on my face?"

"N-no, it's perfect." I replied nervously and gave a little laugh as I pushed my hair out of my face.

Bailey gasped and held her hands over her mouth as soon as she got a good look at my eye and bruise. "Cody? Are you ok? What happened?"

"Oh, nothing I slipped in the-"I stopped for a second, deep in though and then smiled weakly. "I got into a fight…because some kid made fun of my mom."

"Oh, are you going to be ok? We can reschedule if you-"

"No, no!" I held out a hand to stop her. "I'll manage." I replied in a quieter tone.

"Well, ok then." Bailey still looked skeptical but followed me over to the side of the boat as we waited to dock in London.

There was kind of a nervous tension in the air, I was afraid to say anything, just in case I said something to embarrass myself. I had already done that when I went to classes in my pajamas. The only thing worse than that was if I went in my underwear, or in nothing at all. I just had to make sure that this day was perfect and that nothing could go wrong.

"So, where do you want to go first?" I asked as we started to walk around.

"Well, I'm not sure how long it would take to get to the Buckingham Palace," Bailey mulled a she screwed her features up in thought. It was a really cute look for her. Her nose wrinkled and she pursued her lips, if I didn't have a shred of dignity, I would jump her and kiss her right there. But my mom has taught me to treat girls with respect; so that's what I'm going to do. "So let's go see the London Bridge over the River Thames."

"Did you know that the river is the second longest river in the UK and the longest river in all of England?" I asked as we started to walk there.

Bailey nodded eagerly. "Yeah and did _you_ know that the river gives its name to the Thames Valley, a region of England centered around the river between Oxford and West London, the Thames Gateway, the area centered around the tidal Thames, and the Thames Estuary to the east of London?"

"Wow Bailey, you're _so_ smart." I gushed. Realizing that I started to sound a little girly, I blushed and cleared my throat. "Sorry, its' just that, having to talk to Zack about the most insignificant things can make any boring conversation sound interesting." Bailey stopped walking and looked at me pointedly as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Not that you're boring or anything!" I cried, waving my hands around. "I'm sorry!"

"It's ok Cody, I know what you meant." Bailey laughed, causing me to sigh in relief and then beam as she linked her arm into mine.

I couldn't help but smile, being around Bailey made me really happy. As we walked along, talking and joking to each other, I could tell that Bailey was someone that I would really want to be my girlfriend. She has everything that I would ever want in a girlfriend.

'_If only I could really tell her how I feel about her_.' I thought as I looked at her out of the corner of my eye, and then at some of the teenage boys that we were passing. '_And soon, before someone else takes her from me_.'

"Oh, Cody look! We're here!" Bailey let go of my arm and ran onto the bridge, grabbing onto the rail as she looked out across the English Channel. I slowly followed behind her, trying to figure out how I wanted to tell her my feeling about her. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"Yeah, it is." I agreed as she took out her camera and started to take pictures. "Bailey, listen, I need to tell you something."

"Hold on Cody," Bailey replied. I blinked at the annoyed look on her face and was afraid that the look was meant for me, but then I followed her gaze and noticed that it was directed towards a bunch of young men that were obviously drunk as they were talking and laughing loudly.

"Uh Bailey, maybe we should just go." I stammered, grabbing onto her arm.

"Not just yet, I want to remind them that they're being too loud for the public." Bailey said and pulled my hand off of her arm. "Hey you!" she called as they got closer. All four of them stopped and looked at Bailey with red, watery eyes, as if she was insignificant. She might as well have been considering she's younger and they could see her as a naïve American. "You should get a cab get home, you're disturbing the peace!"

"Oh yeah? And what are you going to do if we don't?" one of the men asked in a deep baritone mixed with a British accent. It sounded extremely intimidating, especially if I was going to have to be the one to save her from confrontation.

"I'll call the police, I'm sure that they would have the same idea I do." Bailey replied indignantly.

"Not unless you aren't around to call them." One of his companions threatened.

"T-That's enough." I stammered as I walked over and stood in front of Bailey, trying not to shake. "She didn't mean anything by it; we'll just go and get out of your way." I grabbed Bailey's hand and started to walk around them, but the lead guy threw his arm out, causing me to walk into it and stumble back a few steps. "Look, we don't want any trouble-"

"Too late." He swung a punch and hit me squarely in the chest. I let out a cry of pain and fell to my knees, gasping for air. As I tried to catch my breath, a heard quickened steps and Bailey's scream.

"Bailey!" I gasped turning around. My eyes widened when I didn't see her. It didn't take me more than two seconds to figure out that she had gone over the rail and that one of the young men had pushed her. Ignoring them as they walked away, I stumbled over to the rail and looked down, expecting to see her in the water. But she was holding onto one of the lower rails, a panicked expression on her face.

"Cody, help me!" she called in fear.

I bent over and stretched my hand out towards hers, but there was a good half a foot between our hands and I was afraid that if I reached any further, I would fall over the edge too.

"I'm slipping!"

Seeing Bailey's fingers slide lower off of the rail, I took one last desperate leap to grab her hand, closing my eyes as I did so. I heard her scream again, and my fingers hit air. I opened my eyes quickly, trying to see if I could see her in the water, and then I noticed that she was being pulled over the side of the rail and back onto the bridge.

"You ok?" Rhuben asked, brushing her black hair from her face.

"Yes, thank you so much!" Bailey cried and wrapped her arms around Rhuben in a bone crushing hug. "You saved my life."

"Uh, I guess so. But you're kind of letting me not breathe." She replied in embarrassment.

"Sorry." Bailey replied and let her go. I casually brushed my hair out of my face as I turned and looked at the two of them, an apathetic look on my face while inside, I was angry and totally humiliated. Rhuben must have been able to read my thoughts because she cleared her throat and excused herself.

"Well, I gotta get going."

"Wait, do you want to come along with Cody and me?" Bailey asked desperately. Rhuben looked over at me and I shook my head at her, knowing she wasn't stupid.

"No, I really have to go and meet-"

"Please? Oh, I'm sure Cody won't mind if you come along, will you Cody?" Bailey turned to me and I looked her in her eyes. Her brown eyes that is always hard to say no to in any circumstance.

I sighed and shrugged my shoulders, forcing a smile. "I guess not." My smile wilted almost instantly. '_Now I won't be able to tell Bailey how I feel…and my ex-girlfriend is here. Great, that won't be awkward at all.'_ I rolled my eyes at the thought as we turned and started to walk off the bridge.

Rhuben grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back a few steps. I refused to look at her and continued to stare at the ground, occasionally looking up at Bailey.

"So we may have left off on bad terms, but can't we still be friends?" Rhuben asked. I looked up at her and then quickly looked away, not wanting to be pulled back into her dark blue eyes. "I'm interested in you anymore; I just want to be friends like we were before we started dating." I looked at her again and her lips curled into a smirk. "Besides, I can tell that you're nuts about Bailey."

"I wanted to be the one to save her ya know," I said quietly as I shoved my hands in my pockets. "I mean, I'm happy that she was saved at all but I was thinking that-"

"If you saved her she might fall for you. That's a common thought." Rhuben interrupted. "Listen, I'll help you get Bailey if you do me a favor."

"What's that?"

"Stay away from bridges from now on."

"Deal."

* * *

**This isn't my best chapter, but I tried. The next one should be up soon, I really like writing Suite Life on Deck stories, I may make another one soon. ^-^**


	6. Here We Go Again 1

**Here We Go Again**

**Part 1  
**

* * *

Zack was sitting in his cabin when he got a knock on the door. He lifted his head up from the magazine that he was reading and pulled his headphones off of his ears as he stared at his bedroom door, not exactly sure if he was hearing things. The knocking came again, this time impatiently, and Zack tossed his magazine aside and got off of the bed, striding to the door.

He opened it and made a squeaking sound when he saw Mr. Moseby standing there, his jaw clenched and glaring at him, before trying to quickly shut the door. Mr. Moseby stuck his foot in the way and shoved the door back open.

"Wow Mr. Moseby, for a guy as small as you are, you sure have a lot of strength in you." Zack commented nervously.

"Thank you." Mr. Moseby replied, although he was glaring. "Trying to get away from you guys makes it easy to find a new hobby and I did weight lifting." He let out a frustrated growl, causing the teenage boy to jump and widen his eyes in fear. "That's not the point; the point is that there have been guests complaining about a brown haired boy teenager that threw their food at a waitress."

"How do you know it wasn't Cody?" Zack asked defiantly as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"You know that's a good point, but it's the fact that you're the mastermind out of any of the schemes that you and Cody come up with kind of tips me off." Mr. Moseby replied.

"Well, that's true," Zack admitted, not really noticing what he was saying. "Cody doesn't really have to integrity for it; he gets too guilty ya know?"

"Yeah, I know that perfectly." Mr. Moseby replied and then smiled when he realized that Zack didn't know that he had just given himself away. "Now, because you have just admitted to taking people's foods and throwing them around, you have a choice of your punishment. Along with working at the Easy Squeezee, you have to mop all of the sky deck-"

"But that's Cody's job!" Zack cried. "That's the point of him being a towel boy."

Mr. Moseby ignored him and continued. "Or you can work at the Easy squeeze and work in the mail room, sorting, filing, weighing, anything that you can do with the mail, you're going to do it."

"Are those my only choices?" Zack asked sarcastically.

"That and this is no choice, no matter which punishment you choose, you're also not allowed out of your room unless it is to go to school or to go to work." Mr. Moseby added.

"What if I get hungry?" Zack protested.

"I'll get someone to bring you food." Mr. Moseby replied and then smiled."Have a good day." With that, he turned and left the room with a mocking slam of the door. Zack pouted and sat down on the end of the bed.

"Easy for you to say, you're not stuck in this room forever." He muttered to himself and lay down on his back, staring at the ceiling. "How could Mr. Moseby have known about this?"

_Better question is how Mr. Moseby could have _not_ known _Zack could practically hear his brother's voice in his head. Zack let out a frustrated groan and shook his head back and forth, gripping onto the ends of his hair.

"I _hate_ working." He muttered under his breath as he rested an arm over his eyes. He suddenly sat up and looked around. "Now what am I going to do to entertain myself?" he looked around the room and raised an eyebrow when he saw his room. "Maybe I could clean up a little bit." A horrified expression crossed his features and he shook his head. "Oh no, now I'm starting to _sound_ like Cody."

There was another knock on the door and Zack cautiously got up to answer the door. He looked through the peephole and saw Rhuben, Bailey, and Cody standing on the other side. Cody had an impatient look on his face and he knocked on the door again. "C'mon Zack, I know you're in there."

"What's the password?" Zack called back in reply.

"I'll break your neck if you don't open the door." Rhuben warned.

"Wow, you haven't changed much." Zack muttered as he unlocked the dead bolt and pulled open the door. He opened his mouth to say something but then got a good look at Bailey. "Why are you all wet?"

"You could tell?" Bailey asked as she tilted her head to the side. "I would have thought that I was dry enough by now."

"What happened?" Zack asked again.

"Well, we were walking through London and there were these guys that were being really obnoxious," Cody started to explain. "So Bailey told them off but they knocked her over the side of the bridge and grabbed onto one of the lower rails. I tried to save her, but couldn't reach her in time, but Rhuben was there to grab her. So what happened after that was we were walking around and then the guys that knocked her over the bridge came back and wanted another fight. This time they knocked her into a fountain."

"We figured that she would be dry by the time we got back here." Rhuben added.

"So what does that have to do with me?" Zack asked, confused.

"Oh, we were hungry and wanted to know if you wanted to come to dinner with us." Rhuben replied dryly. "Maybe this time you'll want to throw chicken at me."

"You heard about that, huh?"

"It came from my own twin, I would have heard about it eventually."

"That's true."

"What punishment do you have?" Bailey asked. "We saw Mr. Moseby as we were coming over her and he had a look that was a mixture of annoyance and triumph on his face. And Cody automatically assumed that meant that you had just gotten in trouble about something."

"And I was right." Cody beamed and chuckled. "What is it this time?"

"I have to continue working at the Easy Squeeze, probably longer than I needed to pay off our cards, and now I either have to work in the mail room or clean up the sky deck every day."

"Until when?" Bailey asked curiously.

"Until he says so I guess." Zack replied with a shrug. "That and I can't come out of my room unless it's time for school or to work. So you guys are going to have to go to dinner without me."

"Ok." Rhuben replied with a short shrug and turned and started to walk away. Cody and Bailey turned to go too, but Zack grabbed onto his twin's arm. Cody signaled to Rhuben and Bailey to go ahead and turned back to his older brother.

"What?" he asked, prying Zack's hand off of his forearm. "Why are you giving me that smirk?"

"You couldn't even help Bailey by yourself?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "How pathetic are you? You had to have your _ex-_girlfriend help her."

"Shut up, Zack." Cody replied with a roll of his eyes. He was getting more than annoyed with Zack constantly reminding him of how pathetic he was because he hadn't asked out Bailey. Or in how much trouble he was because he had his ex-girlfriend and the girl that he currently has a crush on, on the same ship. "At least I'm not the one that has to work double time."

"At least I'm not the one-"

"At least _I'm_ not afraid to talk to my ex-girlfriend because I'm afraid of being hurt again." Cody replied quietly, his eyes searching his brother's. Zack rolled his eyes and turned away from his younger twin. Cody let out a sigh and shook his head as he turned his back on his brother and went to follow his friends to get something to eat. "Oh and by the way," he turned back around. "Rhuben's helping me to get Bailey to fall for me."

With that, he turned and walked away from his brother.

* * *

"Hey guys, where's Zack?" Patrick asked the next day as he, Noah, and Sydney walked onto the sky deck. They were wearing workout clothes, as if they were going to go to SS Tipton's gym. They saw Cody, Riley, Rhuben, Bailey, Woody, and London sitting on many deck chairs, talking.

"He's working in the mail room." Cody replied as he lifted his sunglasses off of his nose and looked at the three boys. "Uh, why are you wearing sweat pants?"

"Oh, we came to get Rhuben so we could-"

Bailey caused them to jump, startled, by sitting up suddenly and closing the laptop that she was typing on and looked at the three of them eagerly. "Yes?" Noah asked in amusement.

"Are you guys going to work on some of your dance routines?"

"Well yes, but-"

"Ooh, can I watch?"

Rhuben looked over at Cody before calmly sitting up and answering. "Wouldn't you rather like to just sit here and enjoy the sun with your friends?" she asked and out of her peripheral vision, she could see Cody give a small smile and nod encouragingly. "Besides, watching us is kind of boring."

"What are you up to?" Riley murmured as she leaned towards her sister.

"I'll let you know later." Rhuben replied and then turned to her brothers and opened her mouth to say something, but stopped as she stared at Patrick and Noah. "Did you two get taller?"

"I don't know, let me see." Patrick replied and motioned Riley to stand up. She did so and Patrick stood two inches taller than her. "Yeah, we did."

"Hey, you're blocking my sun!" London declared as she raised a hand to shield her face.

"Oh, sorry London." Patrick apologized as he moved off to the side.

"How did you know my name?" London asked curiously as she sat up and moved her sunglasses off of her nose. Patrick gave her a 'duh' look and then exchanged a confused one with his twin.

"I've only known you for the past," he paused and started to count on his fingers. "Four years."

"How do I _not_ know someone as cute as you?" London continued.

"That's weird." Woody said slowly as he looked back and forth between the two of them, an extremely confused look that matched Bailey's as if she couldn't fathom that her roommate was that dumb. Patrick had a horrified look on his face that equally matched his siblings' and Cody's.

"London, you've met him before." Cody stated patiently. "This is Julius' younger brother."

"Who?" London cocked her head to the side.

"Really? This again?" Cody asked as he threw his arms up into the air.

"Hey guys." Zack muttered as he walked over to the now laughing (except for London who got up and walked away because she was bored) group of teenagers.

"Zack, what are you doing here?" Woody asked as he looked up at him. "Don't you have to be in the mail room right now?"

"So I ditched, so what?" Zack asked as she pushed Woody off of his chair and sat down on it, resting his feet against the end of the chair and letting out a relaxed sigh. "I needed a break after constant working." He looked over at Riley and sat up with a challenging expression on his face. "Looks like someone has a big mouth."

"What are you talking about?" she asked with an impatient sigh.

"Admit it, you told Mr. Moseby what I did so I would get in trouble."

"I didn't say anything."

"Yeah right."

Cody let out a groan of annoyance and Sydney slapped a hand to his forehead when they both saw the look of fury that crossed Riley's features. "Not again." Cody sighed.

"You should have known that this was going to happen sooner or later." Noah muttered as he crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head slowly and sadly.

"What's wrong?" Bailey asked, still not having gotten to know the Jacksons well enough to figure out what was going on.

"Well to put it lightly," Sydney started as he walked over to her chair and sat down at the end of it. "Riley tends to have temper problems. Well, we call them 'temper tantrums'. She had gotten better with it before we got onto the ship, but I guess now that she's met up with Zack again, all of that went out the window."

"Oh." Bailey replied and turned back to the two.

Riley leapt to her feet. "Are you calling me a liar?"

Zack got to his feet and stood across from her, a few inches taller. "No! I'm saying that you're a tattle tale!"

"I didn't tell Mr. Moseby!" Riley practically screamed, gaining the attention from most of the people on the sky deck. "Maybe it was you and your dumb brain that did it!"

That struck a nerve. Zack could handle being called dumb by how own brother, but he could never handle it when someone else called him dumb. "Do you want to settle this?"

"And how do you propose you do that?" Riley asked as she crossed her arms over her chest and paused. "Propose means-"

"I know what it means!" Zack snapped.

"Wow, this is more entertaining that watching two hogs mud wrestle in the middle of the winter." Bailey stated as she shook her head.

"Is that…a good thing?" Rhuben asked in confusion as she looked over at Cody and Woody. They shrugged in reply, used to Bailey saying random things like that.

"We don't know." Woody replied.

"How about we play a little basketball to prove this," Zack declared as he grabbed a ball from a passing ten year old kid. The kid kicked Zack in the shin, grabbed his ball and started to run away. Zack swung his arm back around and grabbed the kid. "Hey, I need this ball."

"How much for it?" the kid boldly replied.

"Five bucks."

"Make it twenty."

Zack rolled his eyes as he handed the kid the money and took the basketball from. He turned back to Riley and body checked the ball. "Think fast!" The ball missed Riley completely and then bounced over to where a large, and expensive, projector was sitting, waiting to be used for movie night that night. It hit the projector and caused the cart that it was sitting on to start moving across the sky deck.

Sydney gasped and darted forward as the cart rammed into the side of the railing and the projector slid off. The long chord was still unraveling and he grabbed it before it could fall completely off. But him being so light, he was dragged across the sky deck and almost fell over the railing himself if Patrick and Noah hadn't run over to grab him. But the projector was so heavy that the younger set of twin boys started to slip too.

"Look what you did, Zack!" Bailey cried.

"Just shut up and grab a leg!" Zack instructed as he grabbed onto Patrick's leg and started to drag him back over.

* * *

**Yesterday was Dylan's and Cole's birthday, they turned 17. So because of that this chapter is dedicated to them, although I know that they will never read my story. Lol. Thanks for reading and reviewing guys.**

**Ok, I got a friend of mine to randomly draw the girl that Cody was going to be with. I'm not going to say who it was yet, but if I get enough reviews I'll update faster and you'll know. ^-^**

**Oh and for a few days, I'm going to be focusing on this story and on my Just My Luck stories 'Life's Getting Harder, Day By Day' and 'Hear No Evil' so I'm not going to update my other stories for a few days.**


	7. Here We Go Again 2

**Here We Go Again P2**

**Monday**

* * *

"We are going to be _so_ dead if Mr. Moseby finds out about this." Noah groaned as he continued to hold onto his baby brother's trashing legs. "I mean the one Monday we have off, probably all semester, because it's a teacher work day, and now we have to deal with this. SYDNEY, STOP MOVING!" he shouted.

"We're not the ones that are going to die, Zack is." Woody pointed out, tightening his grip on Cody's waist as he pulled harder.

"What?!" Zack cried from the back of the line.

"This is your fault, Zack." Bailey replied, whipping her head around so her hair whacked him in the face. She glared at him. "If you would just do your jobs like you were supposed to, none of this would have happened."

"Hey, we don't have _time_ for this!" Rhuben snapped. "I don't want my brothers to fall overboard and I'm pretty sure that you don't want this projector to fall overboard either, because I can almost guarantee that if it does, you're going to be in _so_ much shit."

"Ok, everybody on three, pull!" Cody instructed. "One, two, three, pull!"

Zack, Cody, Riley, Rhuben, Woody, and Bailey strained as they tugged on the younger Jacksons' legs, trying to pull the three boys back before they fell overboard, along with the expensive projector they were holding onto.

"I have a good grip on it guys, just get me up before the fish start to lick my face!" Sydney called from over the side of the ship.

"We're trying!" Cody grunted as the group pulled again.

"What exactly are you doing?" Mr. Moseby asked slowly as he walked over to them.

"Mr. Moseby!" Riley and Rhuben cried in unison as they whipped their heads around to face the angry looking man. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"I was getting ready to ask Zack the same question," Mr. Moseby replied as he glared at the older Martin twin before looking over at the rest of them, curiosity and dread written in his eyes. "And now I'm afraid to ask what you guys are doing."

"You see, what we're doing is uh…" Woody looked at the line of teenagers and then looked back at Mr. Moseby with a large grin. "We're fishing. See, we didn't have an fishing poles with us, and I really wanted to see what cod looked like because we know that the British people eat fish and chips all the time and-"

"Save it!" Mr. Moseby held up a hand and looked around at the teenagers that were lined up, clearly trying to pull something from overboard, the projector was missing, and they all had guilty looks on their faces. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on. "Ok, what happened to the projector?"

"Well, you see what had happened was-"

Zack, Cody, Bailey, Woody, Riley, and Rhuben let go of Patrick and Noah to tell Mr. Moseby, while overlapping each other, what happened and whose fault it was. They hadn't realized what they did until they heard a series of splashes.

Making a face, Mr. Moseby hurried over to the rail, the others following him. They stared, open mouthed as they looked over the railing and saw Patrick, Noah, and Sydney reading water and glaring up at those who were staring down at them.

"Sorry!" Bailey called down. "It wasn't my fault!"

"Did you get the projector?" Cody called down as he nervously pointed to Mr. Moseby. "Because _Mr. Moseby_ is _looking_ for it!"

"Is the cord ok?" Sydney called back sarcastically as he pulled his hand out of the water, his little fist held tightly onto what was left of the cord as the other half had snapped off as it sank out of sight.

"I'm not sure if it's long enough to throw," Patrick spoke up as he spat salt water out of his mouth. "So you guys can, you know, GET US OUT OF HERE!"

"Hold on boys, I'll get some life preservers down there to you and have you out in a jiffy!" Mr. Moseby called and then turned back to Zack and growled. "You, get back to the mail room."

"Yes, sir." Zack squeaked and rushed away as fast as he could.

"You," he pointed to Cody and Bailey. "Try and find some life preservers to get them out of the water." He turned to Riley and Rhuben. "You two try to find a replacement projector." He then turned to Woody and winced when he saw that the curly haired boy was smiling eagerly at him, teeth bared and eyes wide. "Just don't touch me." He finished and stormed away.

"Where are we going to find a projector?" Riley asked Rhuben, who looked just about as stumped as she did.

"You can find it down in the media room; they have a lot of stuff for classes and movie presentations." Bailey supplied.

"And I'm supposed to know where's that supposed to be?" Riley asked as she let out a frustrated snort.

"I'll show you!" Bailey said eagerly and turned to Cody, who started to protest. "Is something wrong, Cody?"

"No, nothing at all." He replied through gritted teeth. Rhuben waited until the two of them were out of sight before speaking up.

"You're a horrible liar." She stated.

"I am not!" Cody denied as he started to walk over to the life of emergency life vests and preservers. He picked one up and started to unravel it.

"You wrinkle your nose when you lie." Rhuben pointed out calmly as she started to help Cody unravel the rope that was connected to the other end. "Let's just hope that Bailey didn't notice it."

"You're right about that," Cody replied and then thought of something. He stood up and stared at Rhuben, scanning her with his eyes.

"What?" Rhuben asked, not looking up from what she was doing. "I know you're staring at me, I can feel your eyes boring holes into my neck."

"Can I just get something straight?" Cody asked slowly, as if he was afraid that Rhuben was going to beat him over the head with an anchor. "We dated before and we broke up. I don't have feelings for you and you don't have feelings for me, right?"

"Cody, I've told you already, I've moved on." Rhuben replied, still not looking at him. "And so have you, why would I be helping you with Bailey if I had feelings for you?"

"Because you're a caring person?" Cody suggested with a chuckle. Rhuben quickly stood up and regarded him with a strange expression on her face. Cody laughed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Yeah, I know, Rhuben Jackson being nice, that would be a miracle."

"You're right," Rhuben agreed with a chuckle of her own. "I'm nice only towards my brothers, it would be a miracle if I was nice to someone else." She grinned. "Now, if it was _Riley_ who was nice, it would be the sign of the apocalypse."

"You got that right." Cody agreed.

"Hey, are you guys dead up there or what?" Noah shouted.

Cody gave a smile and stretched his arms before heaving the life preserver over the rail and into the water. He looked down over the edge, making sure that at least one of her siblings had it before he and Rhuben started to pull them up again. It had taken about twenty minutes, but by the time that was done, all three Jackson boys were standing on the deck, shivering and dripping.

"You're definitely going to need to get out of those soon, or you're going to get sick." Rhuben remarked as she held a hand up to Sydney's forehead. "You're already starting to get warm."

"I'm fine." He replied earnestly. "Besides, the sun will warm me up in no time and my clothes will dry."

"So will a hot shower," Noah replied as he put an arm around his brother's shoulder. "C'mon we'll take our showered and then we'll go down to the arcade, I know that you've been waiting to beat Patrick in that virtual reality game."

"You're a jerk, you know that right?" Patrick asked with a glare as he reached out and kicked him on the lower back. "Besides, I know that _I'm_ going to win."

Rhuben let out a noise of annoyance and rolled her eyes, following her brothers across the deck. Cody smiled as he watched them walk away, but then his smile wilted into a thoughtful frown.

* * *

"Wow, they have a lot of stuff here." Riley commented as she looked around at the various chords and complicated machinery that was used for pretty much anything that you could think of.

"Yeah," Bailey voiced her agreement. "They even have the new projector, the FoxCraft XP 3000, its said to be the best one there is because it has HD capabilities and-"

"Wow, if I didn't know any better, I would say that you're smarter than Cody." Riley commented although she looked kind of annoyed.

"What can I say, I love to learn." Bailey gushed in reply and then looked worried. "Unless you think that's kind of nerdy, because I don't want you to think-"

"Bailey," Riley snapped and then her features softened as she took a deep breath, not wanting to scare the girl. "I know that you're excited to know that there are celebrities on board. But my siblings and I just want to be treated like normal people going to a normal school on a cruise ship."

"Right, right, I'm sorry." Bailey apologized. "I just got really excited to know that I was finally meeting someone famous."

"You live in a _really_ small town don't you?" Riley asked as she took a small step back. "You're not going to like, jump me or anything are you?"

"No! I have _much_ more class then that!" Bailey replied, shaking her head. "I mean, if one of my younger sisters met you guys, your brothers wouldn't stand a chance."

"Somehow I don't doubt that." Riley muttered in reply and then clapped her hands together as she walked over to the large projector. "So, what's up with that Woody guy, he's kinda-"

"Weird?" Bailey supplied as she moved to help Riley with the projector. "We know that, he kind of reminds us of Zack, they have the same habits, but Woody is more into comic books than anything else. He's a good guy though." She stopped when she saw Riley heaving the projector into her arms. "Do you need help with that?"

"You know that might be a good idea," Riley huffed as she slowly lowered it to the ground. She felt a little sorry for snapping at the girl, but she still hadn't really gotten to know her, so he decided that because she was Zack's and Cody's friend, she would at least try. Try being the keyword for her. "Apart from my temper, my only flaw is the fact that I can be a complete klutz, especially at times when I don't want it to happen."

Bailey let out a little laugh and helped Riley pick up the projector before slowly starting to move out of the media room.

"So, you've known Zack and Cody for a long time, right?" Bailey suddenly asked. Riley looked over at her before nodding.

"Yeah, for about four years or so, but we had to leave Boston, because of our career and all." Riley replied and then paused. "Why?"

"Um, did you date Cody?" Bailey asked quietly.

"No, Rhuben did. But they ended it on good terms when we had to leave." Riley replied and stopped walking as she looked at Bailey slyly. "But it's ok; you can have Cody all to yourself."

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." Bailey stammered as she widened.

"I'm not stupid Bailey, I can tell that you like him from the way that you look at him, and you two have a lot in common. You should go for him." Riley continued and smirked.

"But…what about your-"

"I already told you, Rhuben has no feelings for Cody." She paused and shook her head and resumed the movement of bringing the projector up to the sky deck. "Well, at least not ones that I know about."

"Well, what about you and Zack?" Bailey asked in a teasing tone as she raised her eyebrows. "You two seem to have a lot of pent up desire for each other."

Riley snorted. "More like pent up rage." She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Zack has pretty much stalked me since he first met me back at the Tipton hotel. We dated briefly, and when I had to leave to go on tour, we broke up on really bad terms because we argued a lot. And I _thought_ that when we came onto the ship that he would at least mature and we could put it behind us and just be friends like we were before, but _obviously_ that's not going to happen."

"Do you still have feelings for him?"

"NO!"

Bailey giggled and fell silent as they, slowly, moved the projector back onto the cart and let out heavy sighs when their arms were relieved of the pressure. Bailey rocked back and forth on her heels, not really sure what to say, and not wanting her 'moment' with someone famous to end. Riley must have sensed her discomfort as she rubbed her neck and let out a heavy sigh.

"Listen, I don't do this much, because I'm not great when it comes to meeting people the first time," Riley muttered and then gave a small smile. "I remember being horribly mean to Zack and Cody for about a month when I first met them." She looked up and crossed her arms over her chest. "How about you come over to Rhuben's and my room and we can-"

"Have a sleepover?" Bailey asked eagerly.

"Well, I wasn't going to go and say that but-"

"Oh, I'll definitely be there, thank you so much!" Bailey cried and rushed away.

Riley couldn't help but let out a little laugh as she shook her head. "Bailey is definitely one of the people that you can meet only once," she muttered to herself. Her smile faded and she rubbed her forehead. "I just hope that she doesn't find out about what happened in my past and what's happening now; I have enough people feeling sorry for me as it is."

With that, she turned and went to go find her siblings.

* * *

**Now, since I almost confused myself, I'm going to put what day it is under the title of each chapter. Ah, another longer chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it; I wanted to have some sort of comedy in this story somewhere. So, what do you want to see next? A chapter centered on Zack, a chapter centered on Cody, a chapter showing things with London, or a chapter that has to do with everybody?**

**I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing.**

**^-^**


	8. Cody's Plan

**Cody's Plan**

**Monday Night**

**

* * *

**

Cody paced back and forth across his cabin and had been ever since he fished the Jackson brothers out of the ocean. He was extremely confused. He had a lot of fun with Bailey and liked her a lot, but now that Rhuben was back on the boat, he was starting to remember all of the good times that they had together when they were at the Tipton hotel. Patrick, Noah, and Sydney had decided to follow him to his cabin, noticing that something as on his mind, and had watched his walk back and forth, waiting for him to say something. Currently, Patrick was reading a magazine, Sydney was biting his nails and spitting them on the floor, and Noah was lying on Cody's bed, staring at the ceiling.

"Cody, are you ok?" Patrick asked as he put down the magazine that he had found on the boy's desk and watched as he paced the room.

"Yeah, I'm good, Rhuben why." He replied as he briefly looked up at him and continued walking. Patrick, Noah, and Sydney exchanged amused glances and Sydney cleared his throat.

"Oh, just the fact that you called Patrick Rhuben, which he clearly is not," Noah replied as he sat up and brushed his hair out of his face. "And you haven't noticed Sydney spitting his bitten nails on your bedroom floor.

Cody stopped walking and looked at Sydney with a look of disgust. Sydney immediately adopted a look of defense as he slowly pulled his hand from his mouth. "Sorry, I chew my nails whenever someone is anxious about something." He paused for a second. "And it's not _my_ fault, I may be polite, but I'm still only eight."

"What's on your mind?" Patrick asked bluntly. "I have a feeling I know what it is, but I want to hear you say it."

"Bailey's on my mind." Cody replied and stopped pacing to sit on the floor, making sure he wasn't anywhere near the pile of nails. "And she has been ever since I knew she was a girl."

"What?" Noah wrinkled his nose in confusion.

"Hey, did you notice that Cody did that same thing when he said that Bailey was on his mind?" Sydney asked with a smile.

"What?" Noah repeated.

"I think Zack told me this once," Sydney said as he placed a finger on his chin and furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "Every time Cody lies, he wrinkles his nose, just like you did when you didn't understand something."

"That's a lie; I don't wrinkle my nose when I lie!" Cody declared and then held a hand over his face. Bu the three Jackson boys could still see his cheeks moving up and down. "Dang it!"

"Cody, I'm going to ask you a question and I want you to answer it truthfully," Noah said after a few silent moments of studying him. "Do you still have feelings for my sister?" Cody paused for a second and then opened his mouth to answer. "Don't forget that you have to answer truthfully." He studied Cody again as he rubbed his forehead in thought.

"I'm not exactly sure, but I think I do."Cody replied and then let out a sigh. "I mean, have you ever lost feelings for someone, saw them again, and they all came rushing back?"

"No" Patrick, Noah, and Sydney replied in unison.

"And that's only because we're romantics and won't date unless we think that the person that we will date has enough potential." Patrick replied with a proud smile.

Cody had a confused look on his face as he studied Patrick and Sydney took it upon himself to reply. "I think he meant something different, but knowing him, that could be what he thought he meant." Cody nodded, as if it made sense and let out another sigh. "You know Cody; I always admired you when I was a kid."

"You _are_ a kid." Patrick replied dryly.

"Hey, it's _my_ story, let me continue!" Sydney snapped back and then smiled sweetly so his dimples appeared in his cheeks. "Anyway, I always admired you when I was a kid. I liked the fact that you were always nice, albeit a little too sensitive, and I thought that would happen if you and Rhu-Rhu got married. It would be cool to have you as a brother."

"That would still happen if Ri-Ri and Zack got married." Noah pointed out.

"Yeah, but I doubt that Riley's going to be admitting anything any time soon if Zack keep bothering her." Patrick added.

"Where _is_ Zack, anyway?" Noah asked as he turned to Cody. "You know, I figured he'd be done with his jobs by now."

"He probably is," Cody replied as he looked at his watch. "Mr. Moseby banished him to his room remember, so if he's not eating his dinner, he's probably trying to find a way to bust out of his room to at least do something remotely fun before getting sent back."

"It's like he's in jail." Noah commented.

Cody laughed. "Well, I always said that he would end up in jail while I had a high paying-"

Sydney mad e a sound of annoyance and stomped his foot on the ground as he pouted. "Sorry." Cody, Patrick, and Noah replied in unison with sheepish grins.

"But, Rhu-Rhu told me that she's helping you try to get Bailey to fall for you," Sydney was now pacing back and forth, just like Cody had done only moments before. "And she also told me that so far nothing has worked out. Now we're going to help you."

"And how do you propose that you do that?" Cody asked dryly as he leaned back on his elbows. "Your sister is like a criminal mastermind and nothing has happened yet."

"You know, she'd take that as a compliment."

"I know."

"Hey, you know how we're having a dance this Friday?" Patrick asked and waited for Noah, Sydney, and Cody to nod before he continued. "And you know how we're the band that's playing at the dance?" Again, he waited for them to nod. Patrick waited a few seconds, hoping that Cody would get the hint, but he still had a confused look on his face. "Ok, let's go through this slowly." He got up and started to pace too. "Rhu-Rhu is trying to help you get Bailey.

"Right." Cody agreed.

"And Bailey has no idea that you like her."

"Right."

"We're hosting the dance this weekend."

"Uh-huh"

"And we're in charge of the music."

"Yeah."

"To put it simply, you and Bailey are going to be together by the end of this Friday, at the dance. Because our part of the deal is that we're going to play music that's either about a relationship or with subliminal messages to get you guys together. While _you_," at this he poked Cody in the chest with his finger. "Try to woo Bailey to fall for you. If this doesn't work, then you're more hopeless than I thought."

"Wow, you know, you act exactly like Zack sometimes." Cody said as he rubbed his chest. "I think you gave me a bruise."

"Really Cody, there's no way that this plan could backfire." Noah said confidently.

"Except for the fact that Bailey could not feel the same way about Cody and he just did all of that hard work for nothing and make a complete fool of himself." Sydney replied to himself. He looked up when he realized that no one was talking and saw Patrick and Noah glaring at him with Cody looked extremely worried. "But that won't happen!" he concluded with a grin.

"Nice save" Patrick and Noah replied sarcastically.

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**A/N: Sorry this is a short chapter, it was longer in my head, but I at least got the point across. I wanted to show Patrick, Noah, and Sydney's friendship with Cody, so that's why they're the main factor in this chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Thanks for those who reviewed, favorite, and alerted.**

**Read and Review**


	9. Don't Daydream In Class'

'**Don't Daydream in class'**

**Tuesday Morning**

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Zack was sleeping peacefully on one of the many tables in the science lab as Cody, Riley, Rhuben, Bailey, Woody, and London walked into the classroom, the next morning. Cody glanced at his brother but didn't say or do anything as he walked over to his spot and started to unpack his backpack, organizing everything on his desk.

"What's wrong with him?" London asked as she walked over to him and poked him on the cheek. "He's not dead is he?"

"No, London, he's breathing." Bailey pointed out as she walked up to her roommate. She giggled a little bit as he made a snorting sound and rubbed his nose before turning over onto his other side. "Actually, he sounds like Porkers."

"That's a great compliment," Rhuben stated as she rolled her eyes. "Being compared to a pig," she snorted. "But for him that's probably a compliment." She walked over to Zack's feet and pinched his Achilles tendon, causing him to instantly wake up and curl his legs in towards his body, holding onto his leg in pain.

"Did you _have_ to do that?" Zack asked as he glared up at her. Rhuben shrugged and smiled smugly as she walked around to his other side.

"No, but it was funny," she shook her head, still chuckling a little bit before slamming the palm of her hand down onto the table by his head. "Get up; you don't want to get in even more trouble when Miss. Tutweiller gets in here."

"Whatever you say, sweet thang." Zack replied and got off the table. Rhuben froze and raised an eyebrow. Cody whipped his head over to his brother and looked confused. Riley just stared at him, unblinking. "What?" he asked when he noticed the silence.

"What did you just call me?" Rhuben asked slowly.

Zack scratched his forehead. "I don't know, what _did_ I just call you?"

Rhuben cleared her throat and looked at Zack as he if had just sprouted two heads. "Why did you just call me sweet thang?"

"I'm pretty sure that I didn't call you that."

"Even Cody heard you."

"What's wrong with being called sweet thang?" Bailey asked as she held a confused expression on her face. She looked around the room. Woody and London weren't really paying attention to the conversation as London was looking at her reflection in a compact mirror and Woody was staring at her with a dazed expression on his face. Zack, Cody, Riley, and Rhuben all looked uncomfortable. "I don't get it."

"Don't worry about it, Bailey," Riley finally spoke up. "It was like I was telling you last night, Zack has a lot of things that he uses to get girls to date him…and most of them don't work."

"Wow, that's gotta be a knife in the back." Cody muttered to himself.

"On the other hand," Rhuben spoke up and turned to Bailey as their classmates walked into the room. "Whenever Cody gets a girlfriend, it's because he's nice and sincere."

Cody smiled at his friend before turning his attention to Miss. Tutweiller to learn about the many oceanic creatures from around the world. Well, he wasn't going to learn about them, he was going to add more onto his intelligence.

Now if only he could ask Bailey to the dance.

A funny expression slid onto his face as he rested his elbow on the table and put his chin in his hand. Of course, he was daydreaming and not about getting the Nobel or the Pulitzer Prize for whatever scientific advancement that he was going to make. No, it was a dream about Bailey and what it would be like at the dance that Friday and when he finally told Bailey how he feels about her and asks her out.

"_Hey Bailey, can I talk to you for a second?" Cody asked, practically shouting into her ear as the music was really loud. He could feel the bass vibrations in his stomach and it was making him a little sick. Bailey turned towards him with a confused look and held a hand behind her ear, cupping it, showing him that she couldn't hear him. He took a step closer and moved closer to her ear. "Maybe we can go somewhere quiet? To talk?"_

"_Sure, this music is getting kind of loud, anyway." Bailey replied and set down her cup of soda on a table before following Cody out of the ballroom. She gave a small smile in relief when silence reached her ears. She let out a little giggle. "Man, I don't think they really need to play the music that loud."_

"_I guess they just want to give everybody headaches so they can't forget it." Cody replied lamely and took a deep breath before taking Bailey's hand in his and looking into her eyes. "Bailey…I wanted to talk to you about us."_

"_What about us?" Bailey replied, in the same quiet tone that Cody was using. "What's going on Cody?"_

"_There's no need to be alarmed," Cody said quickly. "I just have to tell you the truth about something. You see, I know that you know that I used to date Rhuben. And while she was here, I told her, well, she actually figured out herself that I like you a lot." He took a quick breath. "As in, more than a friend and she decided to try and help me to get the confidence to try and tell you this."_

_He decided to refrain from telling her that Rhuben, along with her brothers and sister, had pretty much compliment or brought up Cody around her whenever they could to try and get her to fall for him. He wasn't sure how she would react if he told her that, she he decided to wait until later to tell her…if things went right._

"_Cody, tell me what?" Bailey whispered._

"_Bailey….I love you." Cody finally said after a second of hesitation._

_Bailey wiped away a tear from her cheek with her free hand. Inside his head, Cody was panicking, not sure whether of not she was crying from happiness or if she was getting ready to attack him or something._

"_Cody…I love you too." She replied._

_Cody couldn't help but beam, although mentally he didn't really let those words sink in. It was until Bailey gave him a hug and started to move forwards to kiss him that he understood._

"_Cody."_

_Cody briefly opened his eyes, but closed them again when he saw that Bailey was still moving towards him._

"_Cody!"_

"CODY!"

Cody opened his eyes and let out a scream when he noticed that he was _extremely_ close to kissing Woody, who had been assigned to be his lab partner, along with two other male students, without him realizing it. Their classmates were staring at him strangely, and Miss .Tutweiller wasn't paying attention as she was writing down instructions on the board. She only got alerted that something was wrong when Cody let out a scream and backed away from Woody and stumbled into a table that held a fish bowl.

As he fell to the ground, the bowl was jostled and it spilled over, causing water to land on his head and the fish to land on his pants, flopping around.

"Cody, are you ok?" Bailey asked from where she was standing next to him.

Cody got to his feet, picking up the fish, and dropped it into another bowl before shaking his head, little droplets of water flaying everywhere. He looked over at her face and blushed when he saw that she had a concerned look on her face.

He could feel his cheeks burning red as everybody was now staring at him. He looked over at Miss. Tutweiller and raised a hand meekly. "May I go to the bathroom?"

"Looks like you already did." She replied and chuckled a little bit as his classmates, all but Zack and Bailey, started to laugh at the large wet spot on the front of his pants.

"Look!" London practically shouted as she pointed. "It looks like he peed himself." Some students looked at her oddly, as she had just pointed out a fact that Miss. Tutweiller just said. "Cody, you look so funny! Oh, I should put this on Yay Me!" With that, she whipped out her cell phone and started to take a video.

"Hey, leave him alone!" Zack declared as he walked over to his brother and glared at his classmates. "Would you like to be laughed at if this happened to you?" they fell silent and he looked over at Miss. Tutweiller. "And not to be rude, but I don't think it was very appropriate for you to have made a joke like that."

Miss. Tutweiller looked shocked, along with everybody else, as Zack had never really spoken to anyone like that before. Especially a teacher. Usually he is the one that would sit back and watch his little brother get teased and even get in on the jokes, he did that a lot when they were back in Boston, but now, he was actually standing up for his brother.

"I'll walk him back to his room." He added and grabbed his brother's elbow and started to lead him out of the room. As he passed Riley, Rhuben, Bailey, and London, he caught Riley's gaze and her eyes widened when he glared at her. Shaking his head, he refocused his gaze and left the classroom.

"Zack, slow down." Cody cried as she tried to keep up with Zack's frantic pace. Zack slowed down after a few seconds but still had an annoyed expression on his face. Cody rubbed his elbow and looked at his brother in wonder. "What's gotten you so mad?"

"The fact that everybody was picking on you." Zack replies sharply. Cody snorted and rolled his eyes.

"You used to start it all the time ,why is now so different?" he asked as he faced his brother, a serious expression in his eyes.

Zack frowned in reply. "The fact that we're older and that people should be more mature, that's why."

"That's not it, is it?" Cody guessed after a second of silence as he studied his brother's eyes. "There's something bothering you."

"There's nothing bothering me, Cody," Zack replied and then smiled a little bit. "Actually, there is something I need to tell you."

"What's that?" Cody asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"Don't daydream in class."

Cody laughed and held out his arms, water droplets dripping off of the ends of his hair, his arms, and rolled down his shirt and pants. "I think I've figured that out." He lowered his arms again. "But if there _were_ something wrong, you'd tell me, right?"

"Right." Zack replied, avoiding his gaze. "I promise."


	10. The Truth Finally Comes Out

**The Truth Finally Comes Out**

**Tuesday Afternoon**

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Zack let out a sigh of frustration as he walked into the mail center and looked at the large stack of envelopes that were waiting for him to be delivered or sorted through. After this, he had to go back to work at the Easy Squeeze and then go and try to do his homework, find time to eat, and then go to sleep.

"This bites." He muttered to himself as he started to sort through some of the mail, putting it in piles of crew, teachers, and students. He stopped when he saw a large envelope addressed to him and Cody. His blue eyes shifted to the top left hand corner and he smiled when he recognized his mom's messy handwriting.

Grinning from ear to ear, Zack quickly tore open the letter and started to read it.

_Dear Zack and Cody,_

_How are you guys doing on the SS Tipton? I know that report cards are coming out soon and don't think that because I'm far away from you I can't ground you Zack. I'm just kidding, sort of. Hopefully it won't come to me having to do that. I bet you're wondering how everybody back here is doing. The Tipton is much quieter without you guys and Mr. Moseby around. I can tell you that much. But nobody is stressing out about things either, so that's kind of a good thing. Esteban is still a bag boy, but he goes around acting like Mr. Moseby some of the time, just because, believe it or not, the staff misses him. _

_Maddie still works at the candy counter, she works on the weekend to raise money for her family, even though she had gotten a scholarship to UMass. It's good to have a familiar face around when you boys aren't here. She doesn't like to admit it, but she misses you guys and London a lot. Arwin…wow, it's hard to say this, but Arwin and I have started dating. I'm going to save you the details because I know you don't like to hear about me dating, as you think I'm old. But I've started to see him in a different light because he is one of the only people that want to see me happy. Especially since he waited so long form me to notice him. So do me a favor Zack, tell Cody not to overreact and think that your father and I are getting back together, because I don't think that that's going to happen anytime soon._

_Well, I don't know what else to say, as there hasn't really been much going on. Write back, I want to hear all about the friends you've made and the adventures you have._

_Love you,_

_Mom_

Zack smiled to himself as he folded up the letter and stuck it into his pocket. The letter from home caused him to work diligently in silence for the next few minutes, that is, before Cody and Bailey came strolling into the mail room, wondering if they had any mail.

"Here you go," Zack said in monotone as he handed Bailey a large package, that looked beat up, and the folded letter to Cody. He turned towards Bailey. "You got some food from your parents, but just so you don't find out later, the chocolate that they sent you is gone."

"Thanks for going through my personal mail, Zack." Bailey said with a disappointed frown on her face. She turned to Cody. "I wouldn't be surprised if he went through that letter he gave you too."

"Actually, it's a letter from our mom, thank you." Zack replied, annoyed.

"Don't fight guys," Cody chided as he shook his head. "Especially over something as little as this."

Zack then turned to look at Cody and a sly smile crossed his features as he looked back and forth between Bailey and Cody. "Are you guys on a date or something?"

"Yeah Zack, I would take someone on a date to the mailroom." Cody replied looking two-parts annoyed and one-part embarrassed. "I'm not that weird."

"Want a second opinion?" Zack replied as he raised an eyebrow. He shook his head. "I'm just joking, buddy, don't take it personally."

"Is something going on?" Cody asked as he looked at his brother curiously.

"I just have a lot on my mind." Zack replied vaguely.

"Wow, Zack with a lot on his mind," Bailey teased. "That's something you don't see every day." Her features softened when she saw the look on his face. "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings Zack, I was just teasing you."

"I know." He replied.

"Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Not really, I'll see you guys later." Zack replied and turned his back on them as he went back to what he was doing. Bailey looked at Cody, who shrugged in reply, but knew that it was a good idea to leave his brother alone for a while.

Zack waited until he heard the footsteps walk out of the mailroom and slumped against the counter, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Cody is so lucky sometimes." He muttered to himself. "He can just go through life not having to-"

"Talking to yourself? You know that's the first sign of insanity, right?"

Zack whirled around and saw Riley looked at him curiously. He frowned and walked over to the front counter. "What do you want?" he asked lowly. She raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything for a second.

"Ok, I'll let that slide because you're in a bad mood." She stated and crossed her arms over her chest, leaning against the counter too. "What's gotten your boxers in a bunch?"

"Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"If I didn't know any better I would say that you were trying to get rid of me." She commented lazily.

"Wow, are you that slow?" Zack asked, trying not to let his anger show. '_How dare she come in here and act like nothing has happened between us at all._'

"Watch it," Riley said sharply as she pushed herself into a standing position. "I could tell Mr. Moseby that you're not being nice to a customer."

"You're not paying me." Zack replied as he raised an eyebrow.

"You got a point there," Riley replied and then crossed her arms over her chest and studied Zack with her dark blue eyes. "Something's on your mind. And I'm guessing that from the fact you're being so standoffish means that you're mad at me about something." She paused. "Am I right?"

"I hate it when you do that." Zack finally said after a few moments of silence and then threw his arms into the air. "Fine! Yes! Ok, I'm mad at you!"

"You can't possibly still be mad at me for us breaking up." Riley stated as she raised an eyebrow. When Zack didn't say anything, she let out an incredulous laugh as she looked around before turning back to him. "Zack….I can't believe you can be so stupid! Why are you still dwelling on that? It's what happened, like, two years ago, and there's nothing that we can do to change it."

"So you can't even apologize for breaking my heart!" Zack shot back.

"In case you're forgetting, you broke _my_ heart _too_." She replied coldly.

"_Hey, we need to talk." Riley said as she walked over to Zack and stood above him. He opened his eyes and smiled up at her, but his smile faded when he realized that something was bothering her. Letting out a sigh, as if he knew what was going to happen, he stood up and brushed off his shorts. "Have you been sleeping in the park all day?"_

"_Not all day," Zack replied as he turned to face her and then nervously bit his lower lip. "But that's not what you wanted to talk about is it?"_

"_No," Riley shook her head in reply. "That's not what I wanted to say." She looked around at Liberty Park and let out a soft sigh before holding her hand out to Zack. "Let's take a walk."_

"_No, I think you can say what you have to say now." Zack replied staring at her coldly. Riley took a step back and looked at him weirdly before taking another breath and saying what she had to say._

"_I'm leaving soon." She replied quietly. _

_Zack didn't have to ask why; he knew the risks that he was taking when he first started to pursue her. Considering she is in an internationally famous band, she didn't have a lot of time to say in one place and have a relationship, but he wanted to try it anyway. At first she didn't want to go out with him, and have shot him down every time he asked her. But then she realized that she had feelings for him and decided to go out with him. The two had been dating for about two years, as they had met when they were thirteen and they are now fifteen._

"_When are you leaving?" he asked as he ran his fingers through his hair, refusing to look at her._

"_As soon as the weekend is over." She replied after a second, as if she was ashamed of having to wait so long to tell him._

"_That's only a few days away!" he looked at her with wide eyes._

"_I know." She replied simply._

"_Then why did you wait so long to tell me?" Zack asked, looking angry._

"_I didn't know how I was going to!" Riley replied, not sounding like herself. "I knew that you were going to be upset about it whether or not I told you sooner or later."_

"_So, that's it, you're going to break up with me?" Zack asked. Riley shook her head and placed her hands on her hips, starting to get mad herself._

"_That's not what I want to do, Zack." She replied, clenching her teeth._

"_Well you might as well!" he cried, taking a step forward, causing Riley to instinctively take a step backwards. "You're going to be going around the world where there are other guys around who want your attention. How do I know that you __won't__ cheat on me?"_

"_I would never do that, Zack!"_

"_Really?" Zack snorted. "I'd just like to see you prove that."_

"_What about you?"_

"_What about me?"_

"_How do I know that __you__ won't cheat on me?" Riley snarled, stabbing a finger into his chest. "I mean, you've done it before and I took you back after that. How do I know that you aren't going to do it again?"_

"_You're right," Zack finally fell quiet. "How do you know that I'm not going to do it again?"_

"_What's that supposed to mean?" Riley's hands were now clenched into fists and they were shaking, but her voice had grown soft too._

_Zack rubbed his nose and looked at the ground, refusing to meet her gaze, meaning that he was either about to start crying or he already was. "Maybe breaking up is a good thing for us. I mean, we weren't really that great together anyway." He took a deep breath and said the largest lie that he had ever said in his life. "I mean, I didn't really like you that much anyway." He lifted his head when he didn't get an answer and was met with the rare sight of Riley close to tears._

"_So you're saying that you strung me along these past two years?"_

"_Yes," Zack turned his head away again._

"_Zack…you…you…" Riley punched herself in the thigh. "I can't believe that I even fell for you! I'm happy that I'm leaving!"_

"_Well, you might as well go now; you have a lot of packing to do." Zack's voice cracked as he glared at her. She glared back and shook her head again._

"_Fine." She replied simply and then reached around her neck, taking off a necklace that he had given to her. She carelessly tossed it at his feet and turned her back on him. "Bye."_

"_Bye."_

"You _knew_ that I had no choice but to go on that tour, it's kind of my job." Riley said as she looked at Zack with a hardened expression, her fingers drumming on the counter.

"No," Zack replied staring back at her with the same expression written on his face. "You didn't _have_ to go; you could have just told your siblings and your dad that you wanted to stay a normal teenager for a while."

"And disappoint all of my fans, I don't think so." Riley replied.

"You know you're acting really selfish."

"How am I acting selfish? I was thinking of my fans, thinking about someone else, maybe you should have done that before you _lied_ to me."

"How do you know I lied?" Zack asked quietly.

"In case you've forgotten, Cody was like my best friend." Riley replied with narrowed eyes. "He tells me everything." She sighed. "Why did you lie to me? And I want the truth"

"Well, you were leaving, and that was breaking my heart as that was," Zack muttered in reply. "And I guess I wanted you to feel it too."

"You succeeded, I can tell you that."

There was an awkward silence between the two of them and finally Riley had to look away, usually in their case dark blue always won against light blue, but this time she _had_ to be the first one to turn away.

"I know that we didn't leave off on good terms," she muttered. "But I thought that when I got back on the boat that we could at least be friends again." She turned back around. "Can we at least try that?"

"I'm not sure."

Riley gave a faint smile. "Well, at least while you were on this ship and while I was away, you grew up."

"You know it." Zack gave a small smile in reply. "I can't always be the screw up I used to be. I screw up about five minutes later than I usually would."

"Uh, I guess I'll see you later."

"Right."

"Bye"

"Bye"

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**Kind of a short chapter, but I wanted to show Zack's sensitive side, the reason why he and Riley broke up, and how they are now. Hope you enjoyed it!**


	11. A Bonfire?

**A bonfire?**

**Wednesday Morning**

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**

"Geez, what's _wrong_ with everybody today?" London asked as she walked into the geography classroom and saw that none of her friends were talking to each other.

Riley, who was sitting to Zack's right, was turned away from him, messing with a pencil in her hands. Rhuben, who was sitting behind Bailey, had her head bent down towards her desk, her hair covering her face. Zack had his head buried into a comic book, but his feet were tapping nervously. Bailey seemed to be zoned out about something, chewing on the end of her hair. Woody was typing something on his laptop with a manic grin on his face. And Cody was staring at the board, looking troubled about something.

"I walked all over this boat and no one stopped to say how fabulous I looked today." She continued with her complaint.

"Does anyone ever?" Riley questioned as she turned to look at London. London looked back at her, ready with a retort, but stopped when she saw the annoyed and irritated look on the young girls face. It was a look that she had seen before and she knew not to say a word against it.

London just fell silent and went over to her desk and amused herself with looking at her reflection in a hand mirror. When Ms. Tutweiller walked into the room, she also noticed that nobody was talking, or in Zack's case, causing a disturbance. That was something odd to her, but she decided to make the best of it and actually get through a class period before something came up.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case as a siren started to blare, signaling that it was time for another life boat drill.

"Alright class, you know where you have to go, and if you don't remember what part of the boat you were assigned to, just go and find someone that is in your group. And remember, no talking." He called as the students filed out of the classroom.

Of course no one took the rule of no talking quietly, it was then that Bailey took the opportunity to ask a question that had been on her mind for a while.

"Say Cody," she started off slowly. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything Bailey." Cody replied, hearts practically making its way to his eyes.

"It's just…you and Riley and Rhuben are so close." Bailey started, mumbling towards the floor, as if she was nervous. "And they don't really talk to Zack. So, I was just curious, have you dated them before?"

Cody screeched to a stop and felt as if he was going to have a heart attack. He looked over at Bailey and saw that she was giving him a serious look in reply. His hands and forehead immediately flooded with sweat and he nervously wiped is hands off on his pants over and over again.

"Yeah, we did." Rhuben cut in, realizing that he wasn't going to answer. "But, we broke up on good terms, and there's only friendship between us." She looked meaningfully at Cody. "_Right_?" she asked forcefully after a second.

"Y-yeah, right." Cody replied and smiled before clearing his throat and looking at Bailey curiously. "Why? You sound like there's something bothering you."

"Me?" Bailey blinked rapidly and shook her head, waving her arms around. "No, no, no. Nothing's bothering me. Nope, not me. No, not at all."

"I don't know," Woody commented as he grinned at her. "Usually when someone starts to babble that means that something really is wrong with them."

Bailey whipped her head around and glared at him and he let out shriek, crying 'don't hurt me' and dove behind Zack. Riley scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Woody, it's not a good idea to hide behind Zack," she commented as she examined her fingernails. "He'll just go around and rip your security out from _underneath you_!"

"Oh will you just knock it off!" Zack cried back, throwing his arms up into the air. "Jeez, you're acting like I stole diamonds from your or something."

"Diamonds?" London perked up and looked around. "Where? What color are they? I hope they match my outfit."

"London, there are _no_ diamonds around here." Cody said slowly as they arrived at their designated lifeboat.

"Hey guys." Noah greeted when he saw them approaching and then turned back to forcing a lifejacket over Sydney's head. "Hm, I think your head got bigger."

"It can't get any bigger than Patrick's." Rhuben replied as she gave him a quick hug before taking a life jacket and getting into the life boat.

"No, you should _see_ my Uncle Billie Bob's head, talk about huge." Bailey chuckled as she pulled on her own lifejacket and got into the boat beside Sydney. "It was so big that we would push him over into the dirt to use his head imprints for the plots to plant our food." She giggled. "And let me tell you, you need pretty big holes for that."

"That's nice." Woody replied and then grabbed her arm. "What kind of food do you plant? You have to send me some!"

"Uh, ok."

"Woody, you're doing that creepy clingy thing again." Zack commented as the rest of them climbed into the boat and waited for their alarm that would tell them that they could get back out and go back to their class.

"Oh, sorry Bailey."

"It's alright."

"So," London asked perkily to start a conversation. "What dress do you think I should wear to the dance this Friday?"

"Why would it matter, they're all going to be expensive anyway." Bailey replied as if it were obvious.

"Oh, I know that," London pulled out a hand mirror and looked at her reflection before starting to put on more makeup. "I just need to know what designer brand and _how_ expensive it should be."

Zack, Cody, Patrick, Noah, Sydney, Riley, Rhuben, Bailey, and Woody all let out groans of annoyance as they shook their heads at the typical London behavior. As she shifted to dig more makeup out of her purse, she knocked into the others, causing a chain reaction with the others to knock them over.

"Damn it!" Riley cried as she dropped something and it almost fell over the edge of the lifeboat. Cody grabbed it before it could fall over and handed it back to her. "Here Riley, you almost dropped your…" he trailed off and his face turned red when he realized what it was.

"Give it here!" Riley lunged forward to take it back, but Zack shot his arm out and grabbed the object from Cody's hand.

"Nu-uh!" Zack pulled the object out of Riley's reach and looked at her seriously. "Why do you still have this small toy?"

"Zack…" she tried to get him to drop the subject, "just don't…"

"No, I want to know," he insisted and took in her look of displeasure. So, why'd you keep it?"

"Well, I don't see any reason why I _shouldn't_ have," she shrugged her shoulders, trying to look away from him. Unfortunately, he took advantage of the close proximity and got up right in her face. With their noses practically touching, she was unable to avoid the eye contact that she _knew_ she didn't need to be dealing with. "You… well, you know I like Care Bears."She blushed in embarrassment and glared at him.

"Oh, me too!" Woody cried, practically squealing like a girl. "Which one's your favorite? Happy Bear or Silly Bear?" Everybody turned and looked at him weirdly. "What?" he pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. "That's what happens when your parents think you're going to be a girl."

"I don't even want to know." Riley said as she rubbed her forehead. "Can we change the subject?"

"Uh-uh," Zack answered, breath tickling her face as he forced her to look at him again, "and I also know that you destroyed everything I ever gave you. Had a big bonfire the way I remember it. So, why wasn't Grumpy Bear in that bonfire?"

"What is this?" She attempted to push him away. "The Spanish Inquisition?"

He refused to move. "No, it's the Care Bear Inquisition. Why'd you keep the toy? The sooner you give me an answer, the sooner I'll leave you alone."

"Just _because_."

"Not a good enough answer."

"Can we just please not talk about this right now?" Patrick asked, sensing his sister's discomfort.

"Yeah, Zack," Bailey agreed. "I don't think this is a good idea." But neither Zack nor Riley was paying attention to anyone around them at this moment.

Riley pushed him away forcefully. "What do you want to hear? Will that make things easier? Just tell me what I'm supposed to say."

"Admit that you kept it as a reminder of me."

"Why would I need a reminder of you when I'm constantly around you?"

"You haven't been around me for the past three years." Zack practically sneered. "Why else would you keep it? You're not _that_ into the Care Bears. In fact, I seem to remember you scoffing at me when I gave it to you. I thought you hated it."

"I didn't hate it," she protested. "Look, why does it matter? You didn't keep anything that I got you?"

"Yes," he admitted. "But I never made a big-to-do about destroying everything you ever gave me." He gave her an all-knowing look that pissed her off beyond belief.

"Move out of my way," she said through clenched teeth.

"Not until you tell me—"

"I don't owe you an explanation for _anything _that I do, _Zachary_. Now, move out of the way."

He didn't budge.

Two seconds of throwing mental daggers at each other, and the two were instantly embroiled in a huge, word-slinging argument that rivaled the last big one they'd had. Cody cautiously moved off to the side of the boat, just in case their arms would start flailing around they would be knocked out of the boat. The others took similar precautions, knowing that the shit had hit the proverbial fan.

Riley screamed so loud, Mr. Moseby could hear her at the front of the bus lobby of the ship.

There was a painful yelp that escaped Zack's mouth and the next thing anyone knew, Riley was on top of Zack, flailing her arms onto his head, apparently hitting the same place she had hit him before. "Fucking hell!" he yelled still clutching at his head and groaning as she rolled off him. "What was the point of hitting me with your shoe?"

Everybody looked down at Riley's hand to see that, sure enough, she was holding her shoe and Zack had a very noticeable shoe imprint on the side of his face and ear.

"You wouldn't get out of the way!"

"What the?" Sydney questioned.

"What'd you do that for?"

"Aw, don't make _yourself _out to be the victim."

"Are you the one with a fucking hole in his head?"

"First of all, there's no hole in your head, unless you count—"

"Oh, how devastatingly original," he sneered.

"Secondly, this is your entire fault!"

"Alright, alright," Cody tried to mediate his two volatile friends. "Zack, just calm down, okay?"

"No!" he pulled away and climbed out of the boat before storming off.

Riley sat in the middle of the boat—all eyes on her, now that Zack had left—and tried to stop herself from shaking. Zack never failed to make her so angry that she couldn't see straight. She heard him talking to himself, calling her every name he could think of and watched as he stormed back, still muttering under his breath.

Only difference was this time, he was carrying Riley's small blue Care Bear with him.

"_This_," he waved the toy at her; "you fucking hit me with your shoe all over this stupid toy!" She tried to swipe it away from him. "No," he jerked it away. "What the fuck is so important about this thing that you kept it three fucking years after we broke up? And why does it upset you so much just because I want to know _why_?" She glared and snatched it away from him. "Why didn't you burn it?" he questioned again, aware that every single person in the boat was staring at them like they were completely nuts.

"Fine!" she gave up. "When I was gathering up everything that belonged to you or that you'd given me," she heaved a very heavy sigh, "I mistakenly missed this. It fell down behind the dresser and so it missed the bonfire." She stopped and clutched her chin in her hand. "I only kept it because it was the first gift I had from you." She quickly lunged forward and grabbed the care bear and then she threw the stuffed animal out into the wind over the boat. "And that's why I kept it."

He suddenly became very interested in his shoes.

The color, the scuffs on the sides, the laces.

She took off her lifejacket and threw it down before climbing out of the boat and walking off.

"Uh, wait." Cody called feebly. "We're not supposed to leave the boat yet."

"Give it a rest, Cody." Patrick suggested as he placed a hand on Cody's shoulder. "Give her time to cool off.

"Yeah, you're right." Cody agreed and then looked over at Zack, who was still looking at his shoes.

Zack almost couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Everyone else was standing there with looks of confusion marring their features. But he should have known.

He felt like the most horrid, evil, self-absorbed person to have ever walked the earth. He wished that, somehow, there was a way to just take it all back. Whereas, that's not an unusual thought for most people at some point, it was fairly new to Zack. He'd never really regretted anything he'd done or said. But this was completely different. This was big and he'd pushed too far this time. He didn't know what to do—what to say to make it better.

How are you supposed to make something like that better?

"Um…?" Bailey's voice sounded out. "Maybe someone should go see if she's alright?"

"No, just…" Zack found his voice again. "Just leave her alone. She needs to be alone."

* * *

**I'm soooooooooo sorry I haven't updated sooner. School has really been getting to me, what with the projects in math and spirit week and homecoming; it ate up all of my time. But fear not, I'm back and updating again. ^-^ Thanks for waiting patiently.**


	12. I Got A Date

**I Got a Date**

**Wednesday Afternoon**

* * *

"Zack, what are you doing?" Mr. Moseby asked the blonde haired boy as he stood in the doorway of the equipment room, his hands on his hips and glaring suspiciously. Zack was currently leaning half out of a porthole window and when hearing his name he crawled back through, showing that he had a long net in his hands. "Why did you make the captain turn the boat around? You don't have the authority to do that."

"I'm looking for a stuff bear that's floating in the water." Zack replied.

"Well, that shouldn't be too much of a problem," Mr. Moseby responded sarcastically. "What are you going to look for next? Goldilocks?"

"I'm being serious, Mr. Moseby." Zack replied and Mr. Moseby could tell that he was telling the truth. His blue-green eyes didn't hold any mischief like it used to, it showed seriousness and determination.

"Why exactly is there a stuffed animal floating out in the water?" Mr. Moseby asked instead. "I know you have something to do with it."

"Long story," he sighed. "It's Riley's."

"And you're making me turn the boat around to retrieve one of Riley's toys?"

"I said it was a long story."

"So…" Mr. Moseby spoke up again, "I take it this wild goose chase has something to do with that big boot mark on your face?"

"You take it right," he lightly touched his bruised skin. How the hell was he ever going to cover that up? By the time of the dance – scheduled for Friday, he'd have the ugliest, biggest bruise ever known to mankind.

* * *

After a ton of trouble and an abundance of curse words, Zack finally managed to get the Care Bear out of the water and back to normal—or close enough anyway. Blow drying it had somehow made it a lot fluffier than it was probably supposed to look. Still—Zack lifted it up a little to observe his work—it was better than nothing.

Zack sighed and grudgingly made his way to where Riley had been holed up ever since the argument, in hers and Rhuben's cabin. He didn't want to give her the toy back. Maybe if he just put it somewhere where he knew she would find it? Neither one would say anything about it and she'd be happy and everything would go back to normal without a word ever having been spoken.

That might be a good plan if he didn't know the full extent of the situation. He needed to apologize and he needed to make it a damn good apology. He knew that. He just didn't know exactly how to go about it.

"What do you want, Zack?" Riley's voice echoed forth as she opened the cabin door. She avoided his gaze, so she couldn't see the rescued toy in his hands.

"Sweetie Tweetie?" He held a bag of candy out to her.

"Go away," she muttered, flipping flopping down onto her bed.

"Or Care Bear?" he sheepishly held the toy out to her.

"You rescued Grumpy?" Riley turned to face him and raised and eyebrow at the look of it. "Wait… why's he so fluffy?"

Zack sat on the edge of her bed. "He kind of had a misadventure with a mud puddle."

"Why'd you rescue him?"

"Because I felt really, really, really bad about the whole thing."

"No, it's okay," she shrugged, lying down again. "It's kind of stupid to hang onto this thing anyway."

"So, I rescued Grumpy for no reason?" Zack snorted in annoyance.

"No, I'm glad you rescued him… even though he looks really weird now."

"Well, it took me two hours just to get him looking like _that_." He ran his hands through his hair a little nervously. "He was in bad shape before I took the blow-dryer to him."

"You blow-dried my stuffed animal?" she raised an eyebrow, the mental image almost too much to _not_ laugh.

"Yeah, it didn't work out too well," he admitted. "I'll buy you a new one, if you'd like?"

"No, I don't want a new one," she was quick to tell him.

"Um…" He moved a little further onto her bed. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright," she shrugged and then watched, as Zack became deathly silent. She could tell he was trying to think of something to say, but apparently, he didn't know exactly what. Thinking that was exceedingly strange for him, she tried to prod him along. "Was there something else, Zack?"

"Er… yeah, there is." He shook his head a little. "See… well…" He sighed before trying once more. "The thing is—"

"Zack, since when do you stutter?" she interrupted in monotone.

"Since I don't know where to start." He sighed again and plopped down next to her, taking over most of her pillow. Typical Zack, she thought dryly, moving over a little to give him more room. "Okay, so the thing is that I shouldn't have pushed you like I did."

"But that's just how you are," she pointed out. "I _am_ used to it, you know?"

"Well, if this was just another normal argument, I certainly wouldn't be apologizing," he decided he needed to point that out, "but see, this _isn't_ a normal argument."

"Really?" she blinked. "It's not. What's so different about this one than our others? Besides the fact that you're apologizing… which, by the way, _never_ happens."

"How many people know about your family, Riley?" Zack asked as he put an arm behind his head and turned to look at her.

"Well…" she trailed off, taking in the piercing green eyes that were waiting for her answer, "… just you and Cody, and London, although she probably forgot. And you mom, and Maddie, and Mr. Moseby."

"Yeah," he sighed, "And, I mean, you and I aren't close anymore. Not like when we first started dating anyway, but I'm still one of the only people who know."

"So, what are you trying to say?" Riley asked after a second. She looked at him and then immediately looked away.

"Just that I should have realized the significance of the toy." Zack replied simply.

"You're not a mind reader. I don't expect you to know every single thing about me." Riley rolled her eyes and picked at her fingernails, desperate for something to do.

"Yeah, but I did know this." Zack finally sat up and looked down at her. "You told me as much when I first gave it to you as a gift. I just forgot and I'm really sorry."

"I'm fine," she tried to assure him, thinking it strange that she was the one assuring him. How had the roles gotten turned around?

"Are you positive?"

"Yeah, I mean, you rescued Grumpy. I shouldn't have thrown him out the window in the first place. I can't believe I did that."

"Why not?" he asked. "It's totally in character."

"Shut up," she grinned.

"The anniversary's coming up soon, isn't it?" he turned serious again.

"Yeah," she fiddled around with the fluffy Care Bear, "… couple of days."

"Eight years?" he pressed.

"Yeah. Hardly seems like it's been that long." She twisted around a little, trying to get comfortable.

"Sweetie Tweetie?" he offered.

"Thanks," she took a few. "So, I guess you told Bailey and Woody what the whole thing was about, huh?"

He turned to face her and simply said, "No."

"Why not? They asked, didn't they?"

"Yes, but it's not really my place to tell," he shrugged. "I've kept it to myself for this long—you think I'm just gonna blurt the whole thing out because of one argument?"

"Well, I guess not." She gave a little smile. "But I bet Cody would have as soon as Bailey looked at him."

Zack laughed in agreement. "I don't know about that, but you can trust them, you know. They'll probably be able to handle the whole thing better than me any day.

"What's the matter? Don't you like knowing something about me that no one else does?"

"Well …" he smirked, "if it was something I could blackmail you with, that'd be another thing all together."

"Always thinking of yourself," she good-naturedly responded. "And you know, you've never handled it badly. You've always been pretty good about it. Especially when I first told you."

"But then all that shit happened."

"But you've never told anyone or thrown it up in my face to try and make me feel bad. So, I'd say—for you—you've handled the whole thing remarkably well."

"Hmmm…" he stood up, preparing to leave, "I still wish I wasn't the one of the _only _ones in the entire world who knows about it. Surely, you could use as much support as you can get?"

"I'm fine, Zack. It's been a long time since it happened," she insisted.

"Okay," he slid off the bunk, deciding to leave things at that. "Are you still hungry?"

"Starving," she admitted, and followed him to the fiesta deck.

* * *

"Ok, Cody, today you're going to ask Bailey to go to the dance with you." Rhuben commented as she followed Cody around the sun deck as he picked up and folded towels. Cody, who was walking in front of her, suddenly screeched to a stop and she barely had enough time to stop walking before walking into him. "What?" she asked when he turned around.

"Say it any louder why don't you?" he hissed, shifting his yes back and forth for someone who could possibly be overhearing them.

"Cody," Rhuben placed her hands on her hips and smirked. "I haven't been on his boat long, and I can tell that you like her. A monkey would be able to."

"I don't think it's very nice to call Zack a monkey," Cody said in a teasing tone and then chuckled a little bit. "Even though it's true."

"Cody, do you want her to be your girlfriend or not?"

"Yes, please."

"Then listen to me!" Rhuben snapped forcefully. Cody took a step back, his eyes wide.

"Yes, ma'am." He squeaked. Rhuben smirked again and nodded as she crossed her arms over her chest. "What do I have to do first?"

"Listen well and follow me." Rhuben replied and started to walk away.

"But I can't leave my job!" Cody protested. "I need the money and I can't get fired now."

"So go on a break" Rhuben replied as if it was obvious. "Cody, what you need to learn is that you need to take risks sometimes. And the day that you were on the game show 'Risk It All' doesn't count. Now come on!"

Across the sun deck, Bailey pulled down the sunglasses that she was wearing and turned to Patrick and Noah with a worried expression on her face. "You don't think he likes her do you?" she asked them. "I mean, I don't think your sister is bad for him as they dated before, but-"

"Bailey, its fine." Noah said in his quiet tone as he turned to give a small smile. "They're only friends and I can tell by the way that he acts around you that he likes you."

"Yeah," Patrick agreed as he lowered his hands from his head, where he had just been gingerly touching his hair spikes to make sure that none of them had fallen over. "I mean, you like him, he likes you, why don't you ask him out?"

"What makes you think that I like Cody?" Bailey asked defensively, her cheeks turning red.

"Oh, I don't know," Patrick shrugged and gave a evil grin. "The fact that you care so much, the fact that you're blushing, and the fact that you want him to ask you to the dance."

"The other deciding fact to this is that we're guys, and we can tell whenever girls like us." Noah replied with a cheeky grin. "Trust me; you don't have anything to worry about."

Bailey beamed. "Thanks guys."

"No problem." Patrick replied with a good natured, sincere smile.

"I'm going to go find him and ask him to the dance." Bailey got up and ran off in the direction that Cody and Rhuben had just gone.

As soon as she left, Noah's smile faded as fast as he had gotten it. "Unless, of course, Rhu-Rhu still likes Cody." Noah added as an afterthought.

"I was thinking the same thing." Patrick sighed.

* * *

"Now, the last thing you need is chocolate." Rhuben stated as she led Cody over to the candy shop that was on the boat. "Because girls like chocolate and will always love a guy that boy chocolate for her."

"I'm assuming that girls just like to get gifts." Cody deadpanned as he shifted the flowers and a small box that was in his arms.

"Yes," Rhuben stuck her tongue out teasingly. "We like to spoiled." She paused and added as an afterthought. "We love to be right too, but that doesn't make us as happy as getting gifts."

"I'd like a box of chocolates, please." Cody said to the cashier. "At least five dollars worth."

The cashier took Cody's money and handed him a gold box of chocolates that was wrapped in a silver bow. "Here you go." He handed it over to Cody and gave a small smile. "Is this to ask a girl to the dance?"

"Yes, I-"

"I hope you have a good time together," the cashier continued and smiled at Rhuben, who didn't say anything in reply.

"Oh, wait, I'm not-"the cashier turned away and Cody let out a sigh of frustration. "Why didn't you say that we _aren't_ going together?"

"Because it's not really any of their business as to whom you are, or aren't going to the dance with," Rhuben replied and looked over Cody's shoulder for a second before abruptly turning and walking away.

Cody opened his mouth, about to call after her, but hearing his own name caused him to close his mouth in confusion. His eyes widened and he whirled around to see Bailey standing behind him, looking confused and hurt at the same time.

"Bailey, what's wrong?" he asked, seeing the look on her face.

"Y-you're going to the dance with Rhuben?" she asked. "Not that there's anything wrong with that." She added hastily. "But, you see, I…well…"

"I'm not going to the dance with Rhuben," Cody replied, looking confused himself.

"Then who are the flowers and chocolates for?" Bailey asked as she motioned to the gifts. "I mean, it looks like you just asked Rhuben and…it looks like she turned you down or something."

'No, Bailey…t-these are for you." Cody held out the gifts that were in his hands, but made sure that she wasn't able to see the box that was in his hand. He quickly shoved it into his pocket when Bailey looked away from him. "I…I was wondering if you….wanted to go to the dance with me….if you didn't already have a date."

"Wow," Bailey blushed in happiness. "I'd love to go with you, Cody."

"Ok." Cody beamed.

"Ok." Bailey repeated with a nod.

The two nervously looked at each other, smiling widely, before they backed away, saying that they had stuff to do and left the hallway. Smirking to herself, Rhuben walked out of a connected hallway and congratulated herself on a job well done.

"Am I good or am I good?" she laughed to herself.

"Hey Rhu-Rhu," Noah greeted his older sister as he strolled into the hallway. "What's going on? What are you smiling about?"

"Oh, nothing," Rhuben replied. "I just got Cody to ask Bailey to the dance, so now he can stop moping around and he can be happy." She turned to him with a questioning expression. "Do you have a date for the dance yet?"

"I do now." Noah replied teasingly as he took Rhuben's hand in his and gently swung it back and forth before letting it go, a serious expression on his face. "Why'd you help Cody with Bailey?"

"Because I knew that he wouldn't have the guts to do it on his own."

"Are you sure it isn't because you want him to be happy, and that if he realizes who made him happy he'll dump Bailey for you?"

"Has anyone ever told you that sometimes you can be smarter than Sydney?"

* * *

**A/N: Next chapter has to do with the dance, has a lot do with London, and also focuses on the BaileyxCodyxRhuben love triangle.**

**So, here's some good news, some of my stories have been nominated for Round 2 of the Site Life Awards. You guys can go over to the Suite Life Awards forum and vote for them there. Thanks! - Riley **

**Here are the ones that were nominated and for which category:  
**

Home Is Where The Heart Is and Camp Suite Life - Best Comedy

Home Is Where The Heart Is - Best Romance

Duel of Fates/Illusions/Souls w/ mikromb13 - Best AU, Fantasy

Xenophilia REWRITE - Best Au, Fantasy

Core - Best Villain

Camp Suite Life - Best Kiss

Stranded - Best Comical Scene


	13. Before The Dance

**A/N: I'm sooooooooo sorry this chapter took so long to be put up. And I'm sooooooo sorry its so short. I had so much school stuff to do. For the past two weeks I've been working after school as the Stage Crew for our school's production of Fiddler on the Roof. And Monday and Yesterday I've been finishing up schoolwork so as soon as I got home from school yesterday, for Thanksgiving Break, I'd be able to update my stories again. Thanks for waiting patiently though, guys. This is a filler chapter, then the London and BaileyxCodyxRhuben centered one is after this.**

* * *

**Before The Dance**

**Friday Morning**

* * *

"Hey London, are you excited about the dance?" Bailey asked her roommate as she came back from a day of classes, dropping her books onto her bed. When she didn't receive an answer, she looked up and wrinkled her nose in confusion when she saw that London was sitting on her bed, as if she didn't hear Bailey. "London…hello?"

"What?" London finally turned to face Bailey.

"London, are you ok?" Bailey asked as she took a few steps closer. "You kind of zoned out, well, that's not that uncommon, but-"

"Are you calling me stupid?!" London demanded as she got off of her bed and glared at Bailey.

Now Bailey was really confused, usually London didn't say anything about people calling her stupid. Actually, London would usually just tune them out if it wasn't about shopping or anything that had to do with how fabulous she was, something must definitely be wrong. But before Bailey could say anything in her defense, or to reassure London that she wasn't stupid, London grabbed her purse and stormed out of the room.

"London, come back!" Bailey shouted after her. "I didn't mean it!"

But London kept walking and she aimlessly walked around, as if she was trying to chase down a pair of stilettos that she just had to have before the store closed. Mr. Moseby, who was walking around and making sure that the guests were happy, had noticed what London was doing and grew increasingly worried.

The last time that she had paced around so much was when she figured out that her father had divorced and married another women and had to miss her school's sports banquet, where London was going to get an award for her talent with Volleyball. Of course she had cheered up when Mr. Moseby went with her in stead of her father, but there is still always that small bit of disappointment that a girl holds when her father promises something and then can't keep their promise.

With his assumption, Mr. Moseby was assuming that Mr. Tipton was going to escort London to the first dance of her first school year on the SS Tipton, but ended up not being able to do it.

"London," he called from the front desk as he watched her walk through the lobby to go to the sky deck again. Wordlessly London walked over to him and waited for him to say something. "Are you ok?" London opened her mouth to answer, but Moseby held up a hand and cut her off. "And don't even think about lying to me because I have pretty much raised you myself and I can tell when you lie. Especially since you're not really good at it."

"I'm sorry I'm so mopey, Moseby," London replied and then smiled a little bit at her rhyme. "I'm just sort of depressed I guess."

"Because your father can't escort you to the dance?" Mr. Moseby asked.

"No," London replied shortly. "It's because I realized that without Maddie around, I don't really have that many friends, or anyone to talk to for that matter." She explained. "I mean, would _you_ want to spend all of your time with a bunch of teenagers, especially you roommate who can't stop talking about the farm?"

"I can see your problem." Mr. Moseby replied. "But London," he started gently. "There are plenty girls your age around that you can hang out with."

"Those poor people, I don't think so!" London replied, some of her attitude coming back.

"So London, in other words you're saying you're lonely?" Mr. Moseby asked.

"That's it, Moseby," London replied quietly, as if she was in a daze. "I'm lonely." She turned and walked away as Mr. Moseby shook his head slowly.

He understood what London meant. All of her life, she had pushed others her age away because they either weren't rich or just because she didn't like their clothes. And the "friends" she did have that were rich didn't like her, and only talked to her because she was rich. The only real and true friends she has are Maddie Fitzpatrick and the Jacksons' older brother, Julius. But they were back in Boston.

Mr. Moseby went back to the front desk, half of his mind on the work that he was doing, and the other half was concocting a plan that would make London happy again.

* * *

**Friday Afternoon**

Bailey could hardly pay attention during any of her classes, which was surprising to Miss. Tutweiller who was waiting for her to jump into each lecture she was giving to make a comment. She was just so excited that she was going to the dance with the guy that she had had a crush on almost as soon as she had met him. Sure, she pretended that she didn't have any feelings for Cody, but that was because she didn't realize that she had feelings for him. She felt for Cody so much more than she had ever felt for her old boyfriend, Moose, and it kind of scared her.

And today, she couldn't stop thinking of how she was going to finally tell Cody how she felt about him.

Riley and Rhuben, who were sitting in the row behind her, made a face when they noticed the goofy smile on her face. Tapping her pencil on her desk, Riley discreetly leaned over until she was sure that her sister could hear her.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" she asked out of the side of her mouth. "If they get together, they're going to be like that for a long time."

"Don't worry; I know what I'm doing." Rhuben replied just as quietly.

"What are you guys talking about?" Zack asked from where he was sitting. He could hear their whole conversation and knew from the looks on their faces that they were up to something.

"Just getting those two together." Riley replied shortly.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Zack snorted. "They aren't together yet and they're already driving me crazy."

"Yeah, well-"

Rhuben suddenly stopped talking and slid down in her seat, hiding her face from the front of the room. Riley did the same thing, and turned to face the other way, as if she was talking to someone. Zack's eyebrows furrowed together and he sat up in his chair to see what was wrong. His heart dropped to his stomach when he saw who it was.

He looked over at Cody, who had also sat up straight and then flashed a look back at his brother before turning back to face the front. Zack swallowed thickly before leaning back over to Riley and Rhuben.

"Why didn't you tell me that your father was on the boat?" he hissed.

"I did," Riley replied, her eyes still averted. "Who do you think home schools Sydney?"She shook her head and rolled her eyes as the bell rang, not taking her eyes off of her father, who was talking to Miss. Tutweiller.

"Don't even worry about it, Zack," Rhuben suddenly said as if she was reading his mind. "We dealt with this before, we can do it again. Don't do anything stupid."


	14. I Hope You Dance

**I Hope You Dance**

**Friday Night**

* * *

"Oh my gosh, the decorations are so great!"

Bailey smiled as she walked into the hall that the dance was being held, Riley and Rhuben at her side. There were lots of silver stars hanging from the ceiling, and silver and blue streamers around. There was a DJ table set up in the corner that was going to be used every time the Jacksons took a break, and there were lots of colorful lights moving back and forth across the dance floor. Lots of kids were already dancing, but the dance had just started so there was still time for people to get there. The bass beat from the song that was playing reverberated in their stomachs.

"Can you guys believe this?" she asked as she turned to face the twins. Riley raised an eyebrow at her perkiness, not being used to someone who is as happy as she was.

"It's just decorations," Riley replied slowly. "What? Have you not been to a dance before?"

"I've been to one dance on the SS Tipton, and that was last semester." Bailey replied, immediately remembering that as soon as this semester was over, the school year was going to be over. The thought saddened her a little bit, but then she instantly remembered who she was going to the dance with and was happy again. Clearing her throat, she changed the subject. "I like your guys' dresses…its cool how you still want to match each other."

That was true. Riley was wearing a knee length red dress that tied around her neck. It had a black sash around the stomach and she wore black boots, red earrings, and a red necklace to match it. Considering she isn't one to wear a lot of makeup, but will when she has to, she is only wearing a little bit of blush, mascara, and lip gloss. Rhuben was wearing the same thing but in a dark purple color. Their hair is as it usually is, hanging down to their shoulders casually.

"I like your dress too," Rhuben agreed with a nod as she looked at Bailey, studying her dress and makeup. "I'm sure Cody will like it.

"Is it that obvious that that's what I was thinking?" Bailey asked as she blushed a little bit, spinning around. She was wearing a light blue calf length dress and dark blue high heels to match. Around her neck was a teardrop shaped necklace and earrings that matched. Her hair was hanging down her shoulders, even though it had crinkles in it from a crimper. Like Riley and Rhuben she wore mascara and blush, but was wearing a dark red lipstick to go along with it. "Do you really think that he'll like it?"

"His tongue will be on the floor," Riley replied and then paused. "Then again, that probably wouldn't be sanitary enough for it, so he'd find a way to scientifically make a metaphor out of it." She rolled her eyes for added effect.

"Hey, don't make fun of my date." Bailey said as she poked Riley's shoulder.

"Just stating a fact." She replied casually as she looked over at her twin. Rhuben had her arms crossed over her chest and she was looking around the room, as if looking for someone. She knew how Rhuben felt about Cody, but she wasn't sure what her twin was going to do about it, or if she was even going to bother. Instead of asking, Riley nudged her sister's side. "Who're you looking for?"

"Patrick, Noah, and Sydney," Rhuben replied and scratched her forehead. "I told them to meet us here, but you know Patrick, his hair _always_ has to be in perfect spikes." She rolled her eyes and laughed a little bit. "I'll go look for them."

"Wait up." Riley stated and the twin girls walked away.

Bailey sighed and lightly tugged at the bottom of her dress as she waited for Cody to arrive.

* * *

London looked at herself in the mirror and blew a kiss to herself as she scrutinized her reflection in her expensive dress.

"Ooh girl, you're looking so good!" The mirror said to her.

"Thank You!" London beamed and winked at the mirror before taking her purse and pulling out a bottle of perfume. She lightly sprayed some on herself and then some more into the air, stepping into the cloud before putting the bottle back into her purse. She looked at her cell phone and saw that the dance had started five minutes ago. "Always be fashionably late," she said to herself before leaving her cabin. She walked all the way to the dance hall, but was stopped by Mr. Moseby just outside of it.

"London, I have a surprise for you," he said, beaming.

"Ooh, is it diamonds?" London guessed, her eyes growing wide.

"No," Mr. Moseby opened his mouth to continue, but London cut him off with another guess.

"Did daddy buy me that pink college I asked for?"

"No, London-"

"Ooh, I know," London waved her arms around excitedly. "A college that is covered in diamonds!"

"Oh will you just let me tell you?!" Mr. Moseby half screamed, half asked as he was growing impatient with London's guesses. London, who was used to Moseby's tantrums, waited patiently as he calmed himself to a normal speaking level. "I noticed that you have felt…left out lately, so I invited some of your friends to come for the dance and stay on deck this weekend."

"Which friends?" London asked as she wrinkled her nose in thought. Mr. Moseby smiled and motioned off towards the hallway. Maddie Fitzpatrick and Julius Jackson walked over to London, smiling happily at seeing their best friend again. London made a face and turned back to Mr. Moseby, disgust evident. "You brought the shaggy haired freak and the poor person?"

"Is the shaggy haired freak me or you?" Julius asked Maddie, who rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the stomach. "It was just a joke." He muttered as he tried to catch his breath.

"Not a very funny one!" she snapped back, brushing her blonde hair out of her face.

"I'm just kidding," London rolled her eyes and smiled playfully before walking over to the two of them and giving them hugs. "I can't believe you guys are here. I have _so much_ to tell you! Like, I'm living with this farm girl as a roommate." She placed a hand on her hip and shook her head while gesturing to Maddie. "And I thought living with Maddie was weird."

"London," Maddie put an arm around her shoulders, gritting her teeth at the memory. "Let's go dance." Julius moved in between the two girls and offered them his arm. They each took it and they waltzed into the dance, passing Zack and Cody who were standing in the doorway.

"Hi Zack, Hi Cody," Maddie called as they walked by the twins.

"Maddie!?" Zack and Cody cried in unison when they saw her. Cody turned to Zack with a confused look on his face.

"Wait, what are Maddie and Julius doing here?" he asked.

"I don't know," Zack shrugged and tore his eyes away from her to face Cody, placing his hands on his shoulders. "Now, are you ready to go and sweep Bailey off of her feet?"

"Yes," Cody replied as he held up a plastic box that held the corsage for Bailey in it. "I see her over there," he added pointing with his chin. He couldn't help but smile when he saw her looking around, waiting for him. "Doesn't she look nice."

"Eh, she looks ok." Zack replied carelessly. "Then again, I'm not the one that has fallen for her. So, go over there, give her the corsage and start dancing."

"Ok," Cody smiled at his brother and started to walk towards Bailey. Less than three steps later he stopped and turned around, walking back towards Zack. "I can't do this. I shouldn't have asked her to the dance. I really can't do this."

"Cody, you can do this," Zack replied as he shook his head and looked his little brother in the eyes, determination and impatience written there. Cody frowned when he saw the impatience, and was wondering what was wrong with him, but didn't say anything. The song suddenly changed to Jay Sean's song, Down, and the volume was turned up, so Zack had to scream to be heard. "And if you don't go over there yourself, I'm going to make you go over there."

"How are you going to make me-"

Zack cut Cody off as he lifted his brother over her shoulder and walked across the dance floor. Cody shouted at Zack to put him down, aware of the stares that they were getting, but Zack didn't listen to him. He just walked over to Bailey, briefly said 'hi' to her, and set Cody down next to her. His hands were shaking so bad that he was juggling the plastic box that held the corsage. "Cody, Bailey. Bailey, Cody. You two already know each other? Great, just give her the stupid corsage and start dancing."

Zack turned and walked away, leaving Cody and Bailey in a awkward silence. Bailey was the first to speak, stuttering over her words.

"You l-look great, Cody." She said as she motioned to his light blue button up shirt and dark wash jeans.

"Thanks," Cody gave a short smile and looked down at his shoes. "So do you." He shook his head. "No, I mean, you don't look great." He rushed to continue when he saw the hurt and confused look on Bailey's face. "I mean that you look beautiful." His voice cracked at the end of his sentence and his face turned red. '_I can't believe my voice cracked_.' He thought to himself pitifully. '_She must think I'm a loser_.'

"Thanks, Cody." Bailey beamed, showing that she was generally happy with the comment. She pointed to the box. "Is that for me?" she asked helpfully.

"Yeah," Cody gulped and opened the box, his hands still shaking really hard. He opened the box and shakily slid the light pink corsage onto her wrist. "I hope you like it. I wasn't sure if you wanted a pink one or a red one, or if a yellow one would have been fine." He rambled. "Also, I wasn't sure if you even wanted a rose or a-"

"Cody, its fine." Bailey smiled and took his hand. "Come on, let's dance."

"Yeah, ok," Cody agreed, swallowing thickly as he followed her onto the dance floor. A small smile crept up onto his face.

'_She's holding my hand_' he thought gleefully.

'_He's holding my hand_' Bailey thought to herself, smiling widely.

* * *

"Ok, I'm not sure how long we have until dad comes looking for us again." Sydney said breathlessly as he pulled a fancy looking vest on over his dark blue button down shirt. He looked into the mirror that Riley was holding out and adjusted his tie. "How do I look?"

"You're a nine year old boy, why would it matter what you look like?" Rhuben scoffed as Sydney pushed the mirror away.

"Because girls like me." He replied cheekily and then his smile faded. "But seriously," he looked at his watch. "I think we have about one hour until dad comes looking for us. We can take a break then, and try to keep him from going on a rampage."

"What do you want us to do?" Noah asked sarcastically and took the mirror from Riley's hand to look into. He was dabbing makeup onto a fresh bruise that was around his right eye and winced every time he touched it. "Club him over the head and pray that it gives him amnesia?"

"That's a good idea," Patrick replied after a minute, shoving his hands into his pockets. "We'll just use my head to knock him out and all will be fine. It won't hurt me at all." He rolled his eyes and shoved Noah's shoulder. "And I thought _I _was the one with dumb ideas." He winced a little bit and pulled up the side of his shirt, a row of stitches looking back at him. "I hope I don't pop these at all tonight. That would suck."

"We'll worry about it later," Rhuben replied as she ran her fingers through her hair again. "C'mon, we're late."

She led her siblings to the dance hall and over to the stage where she picked up a microphone and lightly cleared her throat into it. The students started to clap and cheer when they saw who was on stage and she gave a small smile and a wave. Her eyes narrowed in confusion when she saw Julius and Maddie standing in the corner of the room with London.

"What's he doing here?" she muttered to Noah as she moved away from the microphone.

"I have no idea," he replied through his teeth. "But I'm assuming we'll know later."

"Anyway," Rhuben breathed and turned back to the microphone with a wide smile. "I'd like to thank Mr. Moseby and Miss. Tutweiller for letting us be your guys' entertainment for tonight. But because we're people too, we're probably going to be taking a few breaks-"she winced when Riley lightly kicked her in the leg, letting her know to shut up or she would somehow spill their secret. "And dance with you guys. So, we hope you have fun and enjoy our first song," she pulled a guitar over her head. "This song is called Ocean Avenue by Yellowcard."

"Are you crazy?" Riley hissed as they waited for Noah to get set up behind the drums before playing. "You practically told everybody what was going on! Have you seen Julius' face?" she pointed over to the corner he was in. "He looks like he's going to blow a blood vessel."

"Relax," Rhuben replied. "You know Julius, he _always_ overreacts, besides, I think _you_ have something bigger to worry about."

"Like what," Riley cocked her head to the side.

"Like Zack." Rhuben replied and pointed to him, an amused smirk on her face. "He's staring."

"He's probably staring at the blonde by the stage," Riley replied, in a tone that let Rhuben know that she didn't want to talk about. "Now, can we _please_ just play these songs and do something so we can make sure that dad doesn't storm in here?" she suddenly looked serious. "I mean, he felt bad enough when Carey dumped him, I don't want him to be even more pissed for on reason. Besides, I don't think I can go to the infirmary anymore, the nurse is getting suspicious."

"When do they not?"

* * *

"Wow, I'm really thirsty," Bailey gasped for air. She and Cody had been dancing for the past four songs, and there was still another fast paced one going on. But she really needed a break. She leaned closer to Cody so she could talk to him without yelling and felt his heartbeat going faster. "I'm going to get something to drink, ok? I'll be right back." She added.

"Ok," Cody replied into her ear. "I'll be right here."

Bailey smiled sweetly before pushing through people to get to the punch bowl. "I talked to Maddie and she said that she and Julius are here because Mr. Moseby called them," Zack explained as he suddenly appeared by Cody. "Apparently London's been lonely lately, so Moseby brought them in." he pouted. "I'm going to have to wait a little longer for Maddie to fall for me, but things are going fine." He turned and patted Cody on the shoulder. "So, are you having fun?"

"Yeah, we're having a lot of fun," Cody replied. He couldn't be any happier and Zack could see it on his brother' s face and in his brother's eyes.

"I'm happy for you, dude." Zack replied honestly.

"Yeah," Cody looked around before motioning Zack closer. "I'm thinking of telling her how I feel at the end of the dance tonight."

"I don't know if that's what I would do," Zack admitted. "But you've been after her for a while. What with that whole six moth plan thing." He rolled his eyes. "I just hope things go well."

"Wait a minute," Cody hesitated. "Usually you're never this good to me. That means that something good happened to you." He tapped his chin in thought. "Did Riley finally forgive you?"

"Well, she _has_ forgiven me," Zack muttered as he rubbed the back of his head. "But I don't know what's going on with us right now."

"Zack, it's obvious." Cody snorted as he looked at his older brother. "You still have feelings for her."

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't," Zack shrugged and let out a sigh as he looked towards the stage. "All I know is that it wouldn't make a difference anyway. Even though I think she looks really beautiful tonight, and that I think that all of the feelings that I had for her are rushing back, I don't know how she feels about me. So I'm not going to bother."

"Right," Cody agreed skeptically. "Zack Martin, not flirting with a girl he likes."

"She's different" Zack replied defensively. "Where's Bailey? She's been gone for a while."

"I don't know, probably still by the punch bowl." Cody replied.

* * *

Over at the punch bowl, Bailey had poured herself a cup of punch. But she was too busy looking at all of the dancers to realize that the punch wasn't its usual red color, it was actually a bright orange. But she took a large gulp of the drink anyway and made a face at the taste.

"Ugh," she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, smacking her lips a few times. "The aftertaste is better…maybe it'll just take a few more sips to get better." Bailey finished the cup and poured herself another one.

By the time she drank her sixth cup, the taste wasn't bad and she felt really happy…


	15. Love Drunk

**Love Drunk**

**Friday Night – At the Dance**

* * *

"Bailey, are you ok?" Cody asked as he watched the girl dance around. She looked at him for a second and then giggled loudly and for a long time. As she tried to speak, the look on Cody's face caused her to start laughing all over again. "Bailey?"

"I'm _fine_, Cody!" Bailey gushed and stepped closer, wrapping her arms around his neck, roughly pulling his head down so her forehead touched his. "I'm _very_ fine." She giggled naughtily. "And so are you" she added as she rubbed his arm.

Cody cleared his throat and his face turned red with embarrassment. "Bailey, what's going on?"

"Nothing, I'm just having fun at a dance with you." Bailey replied and ran her fingers over his face. "Did you know that I'm jealous of Rhuben?" she asked suddenly as she looked at stage to where the Jacksons were still singing. Cody opened his mouth to reply, but Bailey slapped a hand over his mouth, causing him to wince with the sting that he received. Bailey nodded her eyes wide with earnest. "Yeah, she's prettier than I am. She used to date you, she's famous. It wouldn't surprise me if you started to chase after her again."

"Bailey," Cody slowly untangled her arms from around him. He leaned forward and sniffed her breath, recoiling as he smelled alcohol. "Even though I already know the answer…have you been drinking?"

"Me?" Bailey pointed to herself and made her eyes grow even wider before she burst out laughing at the look on Cody's face again. "No, I don't drink. I will _never_ drink. My mom taught me that drinking and cursing is not right for a lady." She paused in thought. "My ex-boyfriend, Moose, used to drink all the time. But I never drink."

"It must be something in the punch then." Cody muttered as he sighed heavily. He reached out and grabbed her arm. "Bailey, I'm taking you back to your room."

"No, Cody," Bailey pouted and Cody almost re-thought about the idea of taking her away. "I'm having too much fun." She pushed away from Cody and twirled around so fast that her dress came up above her waist. "Wow, Cody, look at that!" she cried as she tried to stop spinning, stumbling around in dizziness.

Cody looked around to see if anybody else had noticed what was going on. Woody was too busy talking to Addison, who seemed to be falling for him, Maddie, Julius, and London were talking animatedly together, so it seemed like no one noticed, Sydney was watching Bailey with a confused look on his face as he continued singing and playing the piano, and Zack, who had finally taken his eyes off of Riley, was looking at Bailey in concern. For now, the chaperones hadn't noticed, but Cody had to get Bailey out of her quickly, before she _did_ start to draw attention to herself.

"Bailey, c'mon, we're leaving." Cody grabbed onto her arm again. Bailey, somehow, swung Cody around, until he was pressed up against her, his face as close to hers as it has ever been before. She looked at him seriously, holding onto him so tight that Cody was afraid that she would give him a bruise; the alcohol that someone snuck in must have helped her. "Cody…I love you."

"What?" Cody gasped. '_Bailey looks so serious when she said that'_ he thought to himself as Bailey stared at him, obviously waiting for a reply. '_But she can't be serious'_ Cody swallowed thickly and nodded to himself as he unhooked her arms from around him again. '_Yeah. I know for sure. She's not serious because she's drunk. If it were true…if she really did love me, she would say it when she was sober.'_ Letting out a deep breath, Cody bent down to his knees and lifted Bailey into his arms. She suddenly looked very tired. "Let's go" he said sternly and walked out of the dance hall, people staring after him.

But he didn't care.

The girl of his dreams just told him that she loved him…but he wasn't exactly sure if it was true.

* * *

Zack sighed and roughly ran his fingers through his hair and over his face. He let out a growl of frustration and slammed his hands over his ears as Riley sand her solo of a song. He gritted his teeth in annoyance and resisted the urge to look at the stage.

"Cody's not right," Zack muttered under his breath as if he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else. "Cody can't be right. We broke up for a reason, and…I can't fall for her again…I _can't_ get hurt again."

Zack slumped over the table and covered his face with his arms. "It's not fair" he muttered to himself. "Cody has the girl of his dreams practically eating out of the palm of his hand. And I'm re-falling for the first one that I have ever loved, and ever gotten my heart broken over." He lifted his head and stared straight ahead, trying to get his thoughts together. He gave a small smile when he remembered how they met.

_Riley and Rhuben smirked as all eyes turned to them. There were a few muffled whistles from the boys and a couple snide looks from some of the girls. They were surprised. They didn't feel as if they were that good looking, and had a lot of self-esteem problems, sometimes. Coming from such a large family like they do, being two of six children, it was hard._

"_Would you like to say something?" the teacher asked. Riley and Rhuben slowly turned their penetrating gazes to the teacher and smirked._

"_Do we have to?" the twins asked._

"_Yes" the teacher replied._

"_Something" the two chorused._

_The class laughed as the twins smirked and headed towards the empty seats the teacher gestured to._

_"Hi!" Rhuben glanced over at the person next to her and saw a boy about her age with blonde hair and blue-green eyes smiling at her. "My name's Cody Martin." He was whispering, trying not to attract unwanted attention from the teacher._

_"Hn," Rhuben grunted slumping in her chair. A loud cough made Cody whirl around and smile innocently at the teacher his cheeks flaming, causing several of their classmates to titter quietly. Cody sighed audibly when released from the accusing gaze._

_Rhuben and Riley didn't even try to pay attention to the lecture; their minds kept wandering to other things. Their father was being nicer to them than normal, and they really missed all of their friends in Sydney, Australia._

_"You're late." The teacher's dry comment interrupted their thoughts, as them and the entire class turned towards the door. Cody groaned as he caught the sight of the newcomer, Riley and Rhuben glanced at him. He also had blonde hair and blue-green eyes, the spitting image of Cody._

_"Really? I hadn't noticed." His voice was just as dry, but his eyes sparkled with amusement, letting the new comers know that he was enjoying the attention. Especially, from glancing around the room, from the girls. The whole class laughed as he strolled nonchalantly towards his seat._

_'I take it he's the class clown'. . . Riley thought to herself, watching in disgust as several girls pretended to swoon._

_As if sensing her thoughts, Cody leaned over and whispered in her Rhuben's ear. Thanks to Riley's excellent hearing she heard what he said. "That's my twin brother Zack. He's the class clown. Always getting in trouble"_

_Riley's expression turned hostile. In all the schools she'd been to, she'd seen guys like that. Guys who thought they were so cool they could get away with anything. And she had hated each and every one of them. She turned towards the front of the room just in time to see the teacher motion towards her and her sister._

_"Well, just in case you missed something else, we have new students." Zack looked up sharply, searching the room until he found them. The Jacksons regarded him coolly, and he met them gaze with disinterest. Neither of them spoke. "Well." The teacher coughed lightly, confused by the silence of the three students. "If there won't be any more interruptions," She continued on with the lesson, but even fewer students were listening now._

'_Niiiiiiiice.__' Cody thought to himself, smiling at the annoyed look on Zack's face as he went to take his seat. He knew better than anyone that Zack never really liked to be ignored about anything. Even something as small as that and the fact that neither Riley nor Rhuben said anything to him was like a slap in the face._

_Zack's face was dark. '__They could've at least said hi__' A small voice tried to remind him that he hadn't said anything either but he ignored it._

'_I knew it__' Riley and Rhuben thought as the bell rang signaling them to their next class. '__Just like the others. What a jerk__'_

_"What class do you have next?" Cody asked running to catch up with them as the twin girls had gotten up and quickly walked out of the room._

_"Umm. . ." Riley racked her brain thinking hard, she made a face when she realized what it was. "Science is next." That was one of her worst subjects._

_"Me too! " Cody's face lit up, either that was one of his fortes or he really just wanted to get to know them that badly. Either way, it was kind of scary. "We'll probably have a lot of classes together than. They try to group people together according to their first two periods. That's so lucky!"_

_Riley nodded slightly and was about to say something when she bumped into something hard. "Watch where you're going." She snapped, looking around to meet the blue-green gaze of the annoyed student._

_"Watch where you're going, New Kid." Zack warned, brushing past her._

_"Jerk." Rhuben muttered, and then smirked as he froze._

_"Watch your mouth" He turned to glare at her._

_"Why don't you watch yours, idiot!" She glared back, refusing to back down._

_"I told you to watch it!"_

_"Maybe you're not used to talking to anyone with a brain, loser, but not everybody on this planet worships the ground you walk on!"_

_"Like hanging around YOU would get me used to being around smart people." He smirked, thinking he'd won._

_"You're right. You're so far gone it would take more than EINSTEIN to get anything through your thick skull!"_

_"Well excuse me for breathing!" He knew it was a weak come back, but he was too furious to keep quiet._

_"Only if you promise to stop," She told him bitterly, but throwing in a sweet smile to throw him off even more. "Come on Riley"_

_He began to growl softly, causing Cody to place a hand on his shoulder in warning. "I'm going to get her." Zack turned to face his best friend and twin. "She's going to wish she was never born."_

Zack remembered that after that day, he would go out of his way to say or do something to annoy her, just because he knew that it would make her notice him and because he knew that she wouldn't forget him after that. It was safe to say that he had fallen head over heels with this girl, almost as soon as he had met her. When they started to go out, when she _finally_ agreed to go out with him, it was the best day of his life.

A small smile slid onto Zack's face as he remembered it exactly. He could remember how sweaty his hands were, because he was so nervous. It took a while for the two of them to even become friends, he, Riley, Rhuben, and Cody hung around the Tipton hotel, causing mischief wherever they went, with the girls' brothers helping with the mayhem too. It was during those times that Zack's infatuation turned into a full blown crush, and then he tried everything in his power to make Riley fall for him. But the only problem was that Zack was used to flirting with girls by being overly arrogant, and that's what he did to try and get Riley to go out with him.

That didn't work at first, but then after a while, Riley's feelings for him changed and she agreed to go out with him, and after their first couple of dates, she told him the secret that she actually _did_ like guys who were arrogant. She doesn't really know why, but she always had had a thing for boys who had a lot of confidence, and that was one of the things that she liked about him. After a while of dating, the two officially made it that they were boyfriend and girlfriend, much to the shock of Riley's family, as she had never really had a steady boyfriend because she was too afraid that she was going to get hurt, especially from the past boyfriends that she has had.

They dated for a long time for two years, Zack even waited for her whenever she had to leave to do her job; being in a famous band. He always waited, and whenever she came back, he waited for her outside of the Tipton hotel, shivering slightly, but with a bright smile and a bouquet of flowers.

But with every relationship that happens, it has to end eventually, and theirs ended horribly with one argument, when Riley had to leave for yet another tour. Riley had thought that Zack would understand that she had to go, but what Riley didn't understand was that every time Zack watched her leave, he would be so miserable and was so scared that she would leave him, that he would scold himself every time she came back and was happy to see him.

Now, after thinking about everything that they had gone through, he realized that he wasn't ready to lose their relationship.

Zack stood up and looked around when he realized that the music had stopped. He looked at his watch and realized that it must be one of the breaks that the Jacksons were going on. He saw them push their way to the back of the room to talk to Julius. He listened to what they had to say and visibly paled before saying something to Maddie and London and leading the way across the back of the room, his siblings in two.

Zack reached out and grabbed Riley's arm as she went by. "I need to talk to you." He muttered.

"I have to find my dad," Riley replied, looking scared and anxious. "We don't know where he is and we-"she stopped talking when he saw the serious look on his face. "This must be important, you're, like, squeezing the life out of my arm." She pushed Zack's hand off of her arm and sat down in the chair across from him, anxiously looking over her shoulder. "What is it?"

Zack stared at the girl across from him, really studied her. She looked even more beautiful than he had ever seen her before. And he knew, even if he was putting his heart on the line, that he would rather tell the girl how he felt, even if she shot him down.

"What is it?" she repeated with a bit more edge to her voice.

"Ok," Zack took a deep breath and spilled his guts. "I love you…Riley." He stated and watched her reaction as he continued. "And, I don't think I've ever stopped. Before I continue, I want you to know why I lied to you and why we broke up. It's because I was scared. I was scared that you were going to leave me when you went on tour. So, I thought that it would be better if we broke up so I wouldn't have to deal with it when it actually happened."

"That makes sense." Riley muttered.

"So, I was hoping, that, because I still love you, and I hope you feel the same," Zack paused and gave a soft smile, reaching out and taking Riley's hand. "That we could start over." He saw the look on Riley's face and rushed to fill the void. "I love you so much. You would make me so happy."

"Zack…" Riley frowned and took her hand away. "I can't…you can't…" she sighed and took a breath as she stood up. "I'm sorry."

She turned and rushed out of the dining hall, leaving an even more heartbroken Zack behind…

* * *

**Here's a longish chapter for you guys. And I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be able to update again until January. I'm going to my grandfather's house on Wednesday (23****rd****) and where he lives, he doesn't have internet, so I hope you guys can wait patiently and have a happy new year, along with a Merry Christmas! The flashback for this chapter was from my first ever fic on this site (which is also a suite life fic; **_**Home Is Where the Hurt Is. **_**The only thing that is different is that in that story it had their Japanese names and in this one, it is their English ones and that I added more description. I hope you guys liked this chapter though; it was fun to write, and especially fun to take a section from my first story to show how much my writing changed.**

**Thanks for reading, guys!**

**Happy Holidays!**


	16. It’s That Feeling That You Get

**It's That Feeling That You Get**

**Saturday Morning  
**

* * *

"Riley, go to sleep."

Riley pushed her, seldom used, glasses up her nose and looked away from the check book that was resting on her knees and made a face of intense annoyance at her older brother, Julius, who was standing over her. She didn't even hear him approach her, and usually in the morning he was s tumbling cursing mess.

"Why, Dad might wake up." She muttered as she turned her head and pressed her ear against the bedroom door.

Unfortunately, last night, the Jacksons caught wind that their father had gone to the Tipton Nightclub that was for adults and had gotten drunk. Again. From what they could figure out, he had been stumbling all over the place, shouting incoherent words, screaming curses and random people, breaking tables, and demanding to know where his kids were. Because of that, they had to leave the dance early and wasn't able to go back and finish performing and having fun. They had taken their now passed out father to the cabin that he and Sydney shared, it was kind of like a suite, as it had two bedrooms, and locked him in one, keeping at least one of the Jacksons to sit in front of the door, keeping watch, just in case he woke up.

Riley had taken her shift last night around midnight, and had refused to let Sydney take his turn, making him go back to sleep. She had been sitting there all night and it was now 7:00 in the morning.

"No, I'm fine." She replied stubbornly. She growled when Julius pulled the checkbook away and stuck it in his back pocket. "I was almost done with that," she snapped. "Do you know how long it takes to balance a checkbook?"

"I don't care," Julius replied simply as he scratched his bare chest and ran his hands through his messy hair. "I know you don't sleep much as it is, but this is ridiculous, you need to get some sleep. Or you're going to yell at everyone." He paused for a second. "Not that that's any different."

"Whatever," Riley sighed and dropped her head back against the door.

Julius noticed the look on her face and let out a sigh before dropping down onto the ground beside her, hugging his knees to his chest. He turned his head and stared hard at his sister, before the hardened expression on his face melted to one of brotherly love. "Alright," he stated. "Why am I kicking Zack's ass this time?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked warily, not confirming or denying his suggestion at the same time. Right now, Riley wanted to rip Zack's head off, or punch him in the face long enough until he begged for mercy. His confession couldn't have come at an even worse time and the stress of everything was really starting to get to her.

"Zack," Julius replied simply. "Every time you get quiet and pissed off at the same time, it's because of Zack. And I've watched you two date long enough to know that I'm right." He gave a small smile. "So, what'd he do this time?"

"He ruined everything."

"How?"

Riley turned and looked at her older brother, studying him to see his reaction to what he was going to say. "He said that he still loves me and that he wants me back."

Julius snorted.

"Anybody could see that." He retorted as he rolled his eyes. "And it doesn't surprise me that you didn't, you're always worried about someone or something else, other than yourself, so you don't worry about your own feelings sometimes."

"Hey!" Riley punched him on the arm, hard enough to let him know that she was annoyed, but not hard enough to make it hurt. "There's nothing wrong with that! With a blowhard like him," she jerked her thumb towards the closed door where loud snoring was emitted. "And you being always gone," she pointed at her brother between her eyes. "I can't help but worry about Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney."

"Have you noticed that because Rhuben is your twin you don't have to worry about her?" Julius asked gently. "And because Patrick and Noah are getting older, they should be worrying about you, not the other way around."

"I'm older than them!"

"But you're still their sister and they can beat up anyone they want if they feel they need to." Julius replied. "It's a part of the Unwritten Laws of Brothers." He chuckled a little bit and then grew serious. "Really, Sydney is the only one that you have to worry about, but he's getting older to and can take care of himself. You have to worry about yourself sometimes, and that's something that you have never really been able to do." He explained and then changed the subject. "How did you feel when Zack told you that he still loves you and wants you back?"

Riley hesitated for a second, deep in thought. Julius stared at her and realized then that Riley wasn't his little sister anymore. Technically, she was, but he knew that she had grown up over the years, in a way that no one else could. Rhuben had also grown up a lot too, but in a different way than Riley did. He knew that he wasn't always going to be around to protect her anymore, and that she was going to have to make her own decisions herself. The thought saddened him and made him feel happy at the exact same time.

Not wanting her to see the wistful expression on his face, Julius rolled his eyes and nudged her with his shoulder. "C'mon, it can't be that hard to think about."

"Promise you won't tell anyone?" Riley asked, looking miserable. Julius nodded, knowing that she hated to show her sensitive/compassionate side to anyone that wasn't her family. It was hard for her to let Zack into her shell, into her life, when they had first started dating. "I feel the same way. But because of how we broke up, and the fact that I ran out on him last night makes me wonder if it's even possible that we can ever be together without drama going on."

"Riley, what you need to learn is that there's _always_ going to be some sort of drama." Julius chuckled a little bit. "Do you think Maddie and I haven't had drama in _our_ relationship?"

"You guys are perfect," Riley replied with a raised eyebrow. "You don't ever fight."

"You think we don't," Julius corrected. "We have our moments of drama, abut Maddie and I love each other enough to know that a fight can't break us apart." He patted Riley's knee. "And I think you and Zack are the same. Go talk to him."

"Fine," Riley replied after a second and got off of the ground, brushing off the back of her shorts. "I'll go find him."

"Atta girl" Julius smiled in reply and watched as she walked out of the cabin before turning to Rhuben, who was lying on the couch, her eyes closed. "Open your eyes, I know that you've been awake this whole time."

Rhuben's lips changed from it's peaceful rest to a half smile, half smirk, as she opened her eyes easily. "How'd you know I was awake?"

"Your breathing slowed," Julius replied simply. "And when you're sleeping, you snore." He nodded towards the door that Riley walked out of. "Do you want to go talk to Cody?"

"To Cody _and_ Bailey actually." Rhuben replied and got off of the couch, untangling her legs from the blanket that was draped over her. "I'll see you later."

"Later." Julius called back as she left the cabin, smiling to himself.

Riley searched every place on the boat that she thought that Zack would be, not finding him there, until she went up to the sky deck and saw him sitting at the edge of the boat, his arms wrapped around a rail, his feet dangling over the water, and looking out at the horizon, a pensive look on his face as the salty wind blew his hair out of his face. Riley took a deep breath and walked over to him.

"Hey Zack," she greeted quietly and sat down next to him. "We need to talk."

* * *

Rhuben walked over to Cody's cabin and knocked on the door loudly, shoving her hands into her pockets as she waited. After no one answered the door after a few seconds, Rhuben got impatient and banged harder on the door. Seconds later, Woody opened the door, his bushy hair disheveled and his glasses on crooked, Rhuben couldn't stop her hand, which was in mid knock, and bashed him on the forehead.

"Oops," she muttered and amused smirk on her face.

"Ow," Woody whined, grabbing his forehead. "First you wake me up from a _really_ good dream and then you smash my forehead in? What do you want?!" he looked at her and smiled, showing his brace covered teeth. "Are you here to see me?"

"No," Rhuben replied simply. "I'm here to see, Cody."

"Oh," Woody frowned, used to this. "He's in Bailey's cabin. Goodnight." He started to close the door.

"It's the morning," Rhuben pointed out.

"Good morning then!" he snapped and slammed the door shut.

Rhuben blinked, silently asking herself what was wrong before shaking her head and walking back over to the other side of the ship where the girls' cabins were. She glanced at the numbers on the doors, looking for Bailey's and London's shared cabin, and then knocked on it gently, just in case. She wasn't surprised to see Cody answer the door, but he was surprised to see her.

"Rhuben!" he cried, his eyes wide. "W-what are you doing here?" his eyes widened even more when he saw the expression on her face and then looked back into Bailey's cabin. "I-it's not what you think. You see, I-"

"If you know what I'm thinking," Rhuben interjected. "Then what you think I'm thinking is wrong." She rolled her eyes at his confused face and looked at her watch. "Listen, can I come in? I want to talk to both of you."

"Ok," Cody hesitated before opening the door and letting her in.

Rhuben walked into the room and glanced over at Bailey, who was sitting on her bed a ice pack on her forehead and drinking a cup of coffee. "You _do_ realize that coffee actually doesn't help with a hangover, right?" Rhuben said to her.

Bailey looked up at her, her eyes red and dull. She groaned and held her forehead as she moved, making sure the ice didn't come off of her head. "I know that now." She moaned in reply and winced. "And could you please not yell?"

"I'm not," Rhuben replied simply and sat down on London's bed as Cody sat down on the edge of Bailey's. "Listen you two, I want to talk about what has been happening lately." She stared at both of them hard and then looked at Bailey. "When I got onto this ship, Cody confessed to me that he didn't want anything weird to happen between us because we used to date and are now friends. And I felt that way at first."

"At first?" Cody repeated.

Rhuben nodded. "As time went on, I started to fall for you again, and when I saw how much you cared about Bailey and how much she cared about you, I got a little jealous." She admitted.

"Me?" Bailey's eyes widened. "_You_ were jealous of _me_?"

Rhuben nodded again. "Believe it or not Bailey, but you have something that I really wish I did." She chuckled a little bit. "Sure, being in a famous band is fun, I get to meet some great people and do what I love to everyday when I'm on tour, but like I said, you have something that I really wish I did."

"What's that?" Bailey asked gently.

"Being able to be normal, being able to have a normal life," Rhuben replied. "Every day, there are people that recognize me and my siblings and are constantly asking for photographs and pictures. Don't get me wrong, I love my fans. But sometimes it can get too hectic. And being on tour all of the time, or working on music, or going to photo shoots, or guest starring on shows, makes it hard for us to be normal. It's hard for us to make friends too." She gave a half-smile to Cody. "It was hard enough for the two of us to become friends."

"I remember that," Cody chuckled. "You were, always thinking about something when we first met." He turned and looked at Bailey. "She was kind of cold and kind of standoffish, but I wanted to be her friend, to make moving to Boston easier for her, and eventually we did become friends."

"Anyway," Rhuben continued her explanation. "At first, I was jealous of you two. I wanted to break you guys up and get Cody back together with me. I even told him to ask you to the dance, because I thought that if he realized who had helped him all of this time he would fall for me again. But at the dance, I realized that what I was feeling was actually feeling of nostalgia, to go back to the times where we hung out in the Tipton all day pranking guests and Mr. Moseby." She chuckled a little bit. "And at the dance, from the way that you two looked at each other, I knew that it was true love and that I couldn't break that up."

"That's so nice of you," Bailey slowly sat up straight and grabbed onto Rhuben's hand, squeezing it. "I was jealous of you." She added.

"You don't have to be," Rhuben snorted. "Being famous has its perks sometimes, but it's not always a good thing. You don' t have a lot of privacy." She thought about something. "But London told me that you sing-"

"Only in the shower," Bailey blushed.

"I talked it over with my siblings, and we want you to open one of our shows," Rhuben replied and then smirked teasingly. "Only if you're good enough though."

"That would be amazing!" Bailey gushed and then grabbed onto her head. "Ow!" she squealed and shut her eyes in pain. "That really hurts."

Cody, who was quiet this whole time, studying Rhuben's face, suddenly smiled over at Rhuben. "You met someone, didn't you?"

Rhuben smiled a little bit. "That too." She added and then shook her head. "But that has nothing to do with this. I really wanted to apologize to you guys." She rolled her eyes at Cody. "And you know how hard that is for me."

"Yeah," he nodded and smiled. "Apology accepted."

"Same here," Bailey replied and then blushed a little bit as Cody took her hand in his and squeezed it gently. She cleared her throat and changed the subject. "Do you think Zack and Riley are going to get back together?" she asked with a worried expression on her face.

"Knowing those two," Rhuben replied and paused for a second, thinking. "They're probably talking right now."

* * *

**And here's the next chapter and it's another longish one. Rhuben explained everything to Bailey and Cody, Bailey and Cody got back together, and the three of them are friends. Now you just have to wait and see if Zack and Riley get back together. There are only two chapters left, the next one, and then the epilogue. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter; it was fun for me to write. And don't forget to vote on the nominations in the Suite Life Awards 2009 by tiger002.**

**Thanks!**

**-Riley**


	17. I Knew I Loved You Before I Met You

**I Knew I Loved You Before I Met You**

**Saturday Morning**

* * *

Zack and Riley sat in uncomfortable silence as they sat at the edge of the railing, looking out at the horizon and at the slowly rising sun. It would have been the most romantic thing ever, if there wasn't so much that they needed to talk about, that they needed to straighten out. The funny thing was that the two of them were thinking the exact same thing. They were each wondering how to start the conversation that they

"You drive me insane!" Riley burst out after a second of silence between the two.

"Oh, it's nice to see you two, Riley," Zack lazily responded, refusing to look at her.

"Zack!" she yelled.

"What?" he turned around and finally looked at her, his blue eyes glowing with hurt, confusion, and frustration. He wiggled a finger in her ear, letting her know that she had yelled too loud. But she was way past caring. "What's the matter with you? You're all high strung and stuff."

"I just don't get how you manage to do it."

He was lost as to what she was going on about. "Do what?"

"You're the most irritating person I've ever met." She explained. You're sarcastic and completely nuts. You're so damn immature sometimes. And you tell the cheesiest jokes. And get yourself into ridiculous situations. Like a while ago. Who the hell knocks a projector overboard?"

"Obviously me," Zack replied in annoyance.

"Just shut up!" she yelled at him, sick of him interrupting her train of thought.

What was this anyway? Come over and tell Zack everything that was wrong with him day?

"But-"

"And you fucking interrupt me when I'm trying to tell you something important!" She slammed her foot back against the side of the boat and fixed him with the most exasperated look she could muster up.

"Well, I don't see what's so important about attacking me. " Zack replied. "Why did you come all the way over here just to tell me stuff that I already know?" He turned back around to stare at the sky.

"Oh, just forget it!" she got fed up and got up from the railing and strode off, leaving Zack to look after her.

He had no idea what all _that_ was about.

And he drove _her _insane?

It took her about two seconds to turn back around and sit down again. Zack turned back around and decided that whatever it was she was trying to get out, was pretty important.

"You know what, _don't_ forget it!" she said with a glare burning in her eyes. This whole thing was getting completely frustrating and she couldn't take it anymore. "Fine. I give up, Zack!"

"Give up on what?" he asked gently, not wanting to anger her anymore.

"I lied." Riley stated simply.

"About what?" he questioned.

"About not loving you. I did … I still do."

"_What_?"

_Oh, well that was a great way to respond there, Zack_ he thought to himself. She just told him that she loved him and all he could muster out was 'What'? God, he was an idiot. But was she really saying it? Or was he just imagining it again?

"I love you."

"You _do_?"

And there he went again with the stupid responses. One look at her and he knew that it was true. Not that he didn't already know it. He'd figured it out, but he never thought he'd see the day where she admitted it.

"Yes," she sighed, "and I mean, don't think that this just gives you room to run me over and hurt me again. Because I don't know if I fully trust you. I mean, not yet anyway."

"Do you forgive me though?" he asked the question that he knew was the single most important factor.

"Uh-huh," she nodded her head in confirmation, "I do."

He got to his feet up and dragged her up as well, before picking her up and twirling her around. This was almost too much to take in. But hell, even if he wasn't really hearing it, at least it was a nice dream. He put her back down on her feet and leaned forward.

"Wait," Riley pushed him away from the imminent kiss.

"What?" He tried not to pout. "What's the matter?"

"Well, it just seems so anti-climatic," she shrugged. "Like, shouldn't there be some fireworks? Or a big parade? We just annoyed ourselves and everyone around us by fighting and denying our feelings and then that's just it? I say 'I love you' and that's the end?"

"It's not the end," he fiddled with her hair, "cheesy as it sounds, it's just the beginning. Or a re-beginning."

"A re-beginning?" she raised an eyebrow and smirked. Zack smiled in reply, he missed it whenever she did that whenever she was amused with something that he said. "Is that even a word?"

"Why not? Fits the situation perfectly." He rolled his eyes and let out a sigh of annoyance, pouting his lips in anticipation. "Can I please kiss you now?"

"No, wait one more minute!" Riley insisted.

"I'm sick of waiting!" he exclaimed impatiently.

"You won't leave, will you?" she softly asked, letting him know that that was something that she was really worried about. Her tone said it all.

"Leave?" Zack was more confused than ever. "Have I ever left?"

"Well, no." Riley admitted. "Not even when I wanted you to."

"You won't get rid of me that easily." He closed the distance between them. "You're stuck with me now. You'll never be able to get rid of me."

"You promise?"

"I swear," he nodded.

He hooked his arms around her waist and pulled her towards his body. She wrapped her arms around his neck and, maddeningly slowly, brought her lips down upon his. He didn't think he'd ever been kissed like that before.

It was like a fresh start and a lovely conclusion all in one.

* * *

**Well, this story is over! Kinda. Don't worry, there's still an epilogue to go through and it's almost here. I'm so glad you guys liked this story it was one of my favorite ones. Thanks for reading guys! I'm glad you liked it so much.**

**I have a request/co-write with book95 coming up, and I hope you guys read and review my first ZackxBailey story '**_**It's The Rush That You Get**_**'**

**^-^**

**-Riley**


	18. Epilogue: The Start of the New Semester

**Epilogue**

**The Start of the New Semester**

* * *

Today was the first day of the new semester. And like last year and the year before, the SS Tipton was making its departure from Boston, Massachusetts, in the Boston Harbor, and everybody was there to see it depart. The sun was a cobalt blue, just like the weather man forecasted, not a single cloud in the sky. The sun was shining brightly. It couldn't have been a better day to leave for a new year on the SS Tipton.

"Zack, Cody!"

Zack and Cody Martin turned around from talking to their mother, Carey, who was seeing them off for their new year and saw Bailey rushing over to them. Cody grinned at his mom and dropped his stuff before rushing over to hug his girlfriend.

Zack smiled, happy that his brother had found someone that he could love, someone that he could be himself around and not be judged. He was even happier that Cody and Rhuben, whom he had dated before, were still friends, probably even better friends than they were before.

"Another semester," Bailey was saying as Zack walked over to the two of them. "Can you guys believe that we're juniors now?"

"Not really," Zack stated as he gave her a friendly hug. "That means that we have a lot more work to do."

"You mean a lot more work that you're _not_ going to do." Cody teased in reply. Zack lightly hit him on the back of the head and rolled his eyes as Bailey giggled. She looked around for her roommate.

"Where's London?" she questioned.

"Didn't you hear?" Cody asked and a smile stretched across his face. "Mr. Tipton finally bought her that pink college she wanted. She's not a freshmen student at Tipton University of Hawaii."

"Leave it to her to go to a college where she can work on her tan, too." Bailey smiled. "It's going to be kind of weird not having her as a roommate. I was getting used to her making fun of being from the farm…and of my clothes."

Zack opened his mouth to say something, but a pair of hands blocked his view. "Guess who" a high-pitched voice stated. Zack smiled to himself as he grabbed a hold of the hands and pulled them away from his eyes.

"My girlfriend?" he guessed before turning around, to be met with Patrick's horrified gaze.

"Gee, I hope not" he joked in reply as Riley walked over and hugged his boyfriend. "How are you guys?"

"We're fine and excited," Bailey replied and then looked confused about something. "What are you guys doing here? Aren't you supposed to be on tour?"

"We cut it early," Noah explained in his soft voice as he brushed his overgrown bangs out of his eyes. "We sent out dad off to a hospital to get some help. He's doing a good job so far, but we're checking to make sure that nothing happens."

"Then how do you have the money for the school?" Cody asked and then rushed to continue to make sure that he didn't offend his friends.

"We worked it out with Moseby and Tutweiller. Kind of like a scholarship thing." Sydney explained. "Including me. We keep our grades up; we get to keep our place in the school." He smiled the smile that showed his deep dimples. "So, Ri-Ri and Rhu-Rhu just have to get good grades and we'll be good to go."

Riley and Rhuben whacked him on the back of the head and rolled their eyes.

"So, Rhu," Cody spoke up with a sly grin. "When are we going to meet this guy that you're going out with?"

"Never" Rhuben stated simply as a sly smile curled up against her lips.

"Even _we_ don't know who he is," Patrick added.

"Yeah," Sydney spoke up in agreement as he poked his sister in the side. "She's been dating him for over two months and she won't let us know who it is."

"Have you tried guessing his name?" Bailey suggested.

"Tried it," Riley replied with a defeated look on her face. "And we've always been wrong."

"I gave them the hint that his name starts with an 'M'" Rhuben replied with a chuckle.

"Leave it to you, Rhu; to keep stuff you really don't want people to know about such a big secret that it drives those who want to know nuts." Cody replied as he patted her shoulder in amusement and shook his head in disbelief.

"Apparently she doesn't trust us." Patrick added.

"That's because Julius told them that whatever he would do to our dates, they're allowed to now," Riley explained. "Which means that they're going to grill every guy that we go out with, you should have seen what happened on the road."

"Wait a minute," Zack looked scared. "You didn't cheat on my while you were gone did you?"

"No," Riley replied. "I was just joking."

"Oh good," He let out a breath of relief.

"Hey guys, we're leaving now," Sydney said and scampered over to the edge of the boat. The others followed him and leaned against the railing as they waved to the people that they did know, and the ones that they didn't as the boat pulled away from the dock.

"You know what, guys?" Zack smiled as he backed away from the railing and looked at his friends. "I think this will be the best year of school that I'm ever going to have."

**The End**

* * *

**At last the story is over and it officially marks the beginning of my writing Suite Life on Deck stories, although I'll still be doing Suite Life of Zack and Cody ones too. It was a request story and the only thing that I didn't really like about it was the fact that it ended up being a CodyxBailey because ReachingForTheStars asked for it. I'm not a huge fan of that pairing, but its fine, I'll write whatever pairing anyone wants if they ask. Thanks again and I hope you read my other stories.**

**The only thing that I'm wondering about is two things:**

1. If I should still do some SLOD stories with my characters

2. And if I should do some SLOD element stories

**I hope you guys let me know.**

**I have a request/co-write with book95 coming up, a humor/friend ship story about the SLOD characters (and maybe mine) coming up, and I hope you guys read and review my first ZackxBailey story '**_**It's the Rush That You Get**_**'**

**Thanks again!**

**-Riley**


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